Munde's tragic death prompts govt to rethink road safety laws

New Delhi: Repeated violations of traffic rules will result in cancellation of driving license once the government overhauls the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill to enforce stricter adherence to norms. “If anyone violates the road rules more than three times, his driving license will be suspended for six months and if he continues to violate after that, then the driving license will be cancelled. These are some of the considerations as part of redrafting the Motor Vehicles bill,” Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari told reporters here. [caption id=“attachment_609323” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Nitin Gadkari. Agencies. [/caption] His comments come two days after Gopinath Munde, who was the Rural Development Minister, died in a road accident in the national capital. India reported 4.9 lakh road accidents in 2013 with a death toll of 1.38 lakh. As many as 5.09 lakh persons were injured in road accidents during the year. Gadkari said once the new laws are implemented, they will drastically reduce the number of road deaths. The new bill is likely to include measures such as installing CCTV cameras at all traffic signals and centralising data to check misuse of driving licences. “In a month’s time we will re-draft the Motor Vehicles amendment bill in sync with six advanced nations - US, Canada, Singapore, Japan, Germany and the UK, and thereafter will introduce it in Parliament,” Gadkari said. The UK has already consented to cooperate in this area and “I will be meeting the UK High Commissioner in a day or two in this regard,” he said. Stressing upon the need to overhaul the entire traffic network through advanced IT systems, Gadkari told reporters here the previous bill was mainly focused on “man-made implementation” which “I think is not practical.” The draft bill will be placed before the National Road Safety Council in a month where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be invited, he said, adding that stakeholders’ suggestions would be incorporated in the bill. The existing Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, which was passed in the Rajya Sabha in May 2012, proposes hefty penalties for traffic rule violations and drunken driving. Earlier in the day, Gadkari chaired a high-level meeting with ministry officials, Delhi Police and officials of other departments in the wake of Munde’s death on 3 June. Gadkari said: “Black spots for accidents will be identified across the nation in coordination with state governments and other stakeholders. “People don’t respect law here. Henceforth, with the new Act, advanced CCTV cameras would be installed at all traffic signals and anyone violating the law will be issued a challan in 24 hours.” The minister said all manufacturers of heavy vehicles such as trucks will be asked to make certain changes in the design of the vehicles to incorporate safety requirements. Gadkari said data for driving licenses will be centralised to check misuse as often one person is found in possession of several licences. Amendments to two more laws governing the transport sector - Carriage by Roads Act and Road Transport Corporation Act - will be made, he said. In six months, public transport vehicles plying in all cities with over 10 lakh population will be fitted with advanced GPS tracking systems for the safety of women. The bill in its current form provides hefty penalties - almost 10 times more than what traffic violators pay now - for offences such as over-speeding and drunken driving. The bill seeks to raise compensation for death resulting from a hit-and-run accident to Rs 1 lakh and for injuries from such incidents to Rs 50,000. Several provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act of 1988, especially those related to penalties for violations, have not been found to be effective in checking road accidents. The last time the Act was amended was in 2001. PTI