India’s draft road safety bill focuses more on penalty and technology

Death and injury prevention get little attention

Published on:

28 Oct 2014, 3:30 pm

To address the problem of road safety, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has published a draft Road Transport and Safety Bill for public comments and suggestions. If passed by Parliament, it would replace the existing Motor Vehicles Act of 1988.

While the bill should be aiming for zero mortality, it has set a target to save 200,000 lives in the first five years through reduction in road traffic accident deaths by strict implementation of laws. Additionally, it envisages a 4 per cent GDP improvement on account of increased efficiency and safety of road transport sector.

This much awaited bill comes at a time when accident deaths and injury have reached scary numbers in India. The global safety report of WHO states that India has the highest road traffic accident rate worldwide with over 140,000 deaths annually, beating even China. Road accidents are a serious problem, but little attention is being paid to this. While annually the nation loses almost 1.5 per cent of its GDP on account of road accidents, we are not even spending 10 per cent of that amount to make our roads safe. Every year almost 1.3 million people die in road mishaps, globally.

Emergency call

Proposals of the bill

The bill proposes strict penalties and heavy fines for violating signals. The proposed fine varies from Rs. 5,000 to 50,000
It proposes fine of Rs. 5 lakh per vehicle, as well as imprisonment, for faulty manufacturing design, besides cancellation of licenses for rash and negligent driving and holds both the manufacturer and the user liable. In case of using vehicle in unsafe conditions such as using a vehicle which as prior defects, violates the safety standards; a penalty of Rs. 1 lakh or imprisonment for six months, which may extend to one year or both, is proposed.
It proposes the creation of three lead agencies: national authority for road safety, national transport and multimodal coordination authority and state transport authority
It has set targets to reduce the number of fatal road accidents
Strict penalties for offences involving children
Unified vehicle registration system and registration to be linked with insurance, vehicle offences, and vehicle fitness
vehicle fitness testing and worthiness road tests for all cars and two-wheelers every five years
multi-modal integration of bus rapid transport and intra-city transport
Provisions for NMT and pedestrian bicycle infrastructure
Emphasis on safety of schoolchildren/women/persons with disability