Red signal to traffic fatalities
Severe and certain penalties can deter offenders on the road
On Saturday night, three young doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) were killed on the Yamuna Expressway when their car crashed into a truck carrying protruding metal rods. Although the expressway is notorious for its record on fatalities – with a reported 100 deaths every year since it opened in
2012 – road accidents in India are not limited to this stretch alone. In 2016, according to the Union ministry of road transport and highways, 150,785 deaths were reported in India owing to road mishaps.
One way to make our roads safer would be to implement traffic norms with zero tolerance for violators. A deterrent for offenders could be the passage of the Motor Vehicle Act (Amendment) Bill 2017, which proposes stiff penalties for routine violations. Awaiting the Rajya Sabha’s nod since last year, one of its proposals is to raise the fine for drink driving from ₹2,000 to ₹10,000. Another recommendation is a three-year jail for parents of minor drivers who have caused fatal accidents.
Although the Act has a number of tough recommendations, it is silent on deaths caused by overloaded or badly loaded vehicles. According to the ministry of road transport and highways, overloaded trucks kill 100 people every day on India’s roads. Similarly, trucks with protruding loads – such as those that killed the doctors from AIIMS – are a common sight on our roads. In 2014, the government deleted the provision in the Central Motor Vehicle Rules that allowed protrusions up to one metre and banned vehicles from carrying rods or any material extending beyond the body frame. Despite this, lax implementation and the collusion of transport officials, who let offenders without documentation get away with murder, means that 17 people lose their lives in road accidents in India every hour. Since 2014, the BJP government has been promising a law to replace the Motor Vehicles Act of 1988. It is time the Opposition and the party in power shed their differences to enact a legislation that assures the certainty and severity of punishment. Every four minutes we delay acting on this, one more person will die on the country’s roads.