After years of long sleep Indian government now decided it’s time to revise Road safety norms, Government awakened by the shocking death of its Union minister who lost his life in severe road accident which might be the result of shaky road safety norms. As a result of it, government has decided it’s high time to make amendments in motor vehicle act. So few days back government unveiled a draft amendment to Motor vehicle act.
According to the new road safety and transport bill, Penalties up to Rs. 3 lakhs could be imposed along with minimum 7 year imprisonment for death of the child in certain situations.
Proposing to eradicate the cases of drink and drive and make it a costly affair, the draft bill has proposed Rs. 25,000 fine or three months of jail or both and Six months of license suspension for the first offence. If the same act is repeated within three years, the offender will have to pay Rs. 50,000 as fine or imprisonment for one year or both and One year license suspension. If offender is found doing it for the third time it will result in cancellation of License and seizure of Vehicle for 30 days.
If school bus driver caught in drink and drive case the suspect will be penalized with the fine of Rs. 25,000 and three year imprisonment and ‘Immediate Cancellation of License’ would be imposed if driver is between 18-25 years.
Draft bill also has a clause according to which Violating traffic signal Three times will result in fine of Rs. 15,000, license cancellation for a month and compulsory refresher training for the offender and Fine of Rs. 5,000 for not wearing seat belt.
Apart from imprisonment and fine, motorists will be getting penalty points for every violations and collecting 12 points means losing license for one year and draft bill also consists some new features like penalities for vehicle recalls by auto firms, vehicle catching fire and for manufacturing defect.
Many of the people dies of road accident in India every year, whether it’s due to drink and drive, not wearing helmet, jumping red lights, driving in wrong lane or driving recklessly and people pay for this by losing their life. 1.37 lakhs road fatalities reported last year in India.
The government has said that the “bill aim to bring down that to 2 lakh in 5 years and to increase GDP by 4% on account of increased efficiency and safety of road transport”.
| For Safer Roads Draft road safety bill proposes strict action against traffic rule violators |
||||
| SPEEDING | DRUNK DRIVING | TALKING ON MOBILE/LISTENING TO I-POD/ WATCHING TV | ||
| Existing | Proposed | Existing | Proposed | (NEW OFFENCE) |
| Rs 400-1000 fine | 5000-12,500 fine | Up to Rs. 3000 fine or 2 years of jail or both | Rs. 15,000 fine or 2 years of jail | Fine- Rs. 4000-15,000 |
| Fine to be double for offences with children on board | Rs. 50,000 fine and 3 years jail for School bus drivers | *License suspension/ Cancellation for repeat offenders in all cases | ||
Commenting on Bill, Road transport and Highways minister of India Nitin Gadkari tweeted “Our new Bill gives emphasis on E-governance to bring in transparency in the transport sector. Our new ‘golden hour’ policy will provide immediate relief to accident victims and will help save lakhs of lives”.
