[mpksuhas]

^^ Here is the link for the same

http://morth.nic.in/index2.asp?slid=...kid=932&lang=1

[sachinayak]

Draft Road Transport Safety Bill 2014
http://morth.nic.in/writereaddata/li...1386346852.pdf
http://morth.nic.in/writereaddata/li...2322000032.pdf

Comparison with Old Bill
http://morth.nic.in/writereaddata/li...2804955856.pdf


Source -
http://morth.nic.in/index2.asp?slid=...kid=932&lang=1

[MandarMax]

I was just about to post the links mentioned in the above two posts.

I liked the fact that the ministry has invited suggestions from people on the draft bill. The suggestions can be emailed to the following email addresses. Following quote is directly taken from the MORTH website:

Any suggestions or comments can be emailed on the following addresses:
dharkat@nic.in
sanjay.bando@nic.in
For efficient email handling at this end please include the following in the Subject:
“Suggestions for the Road Transport and Safety Bill”

[MandarMax]

Dear Admins - Sorry for the back to back posts, but the 30 minute edit window expired while I was gathering and writing the below information. Please merge with the above post if appropriate.

Following are quick observations based on a cursory glance at some of the available documents:

• New agencies to be set up in the form of National Authority for Road Safety, National Transport & Multimodal Coordination Authority and State Transport Authority.
• Roadworthiness tests for all cars and two wheelers every five years - I am wondering if this means facing new hassles / corruption for ordinary citizens.
• Front and rear seat belts required in all new cars - a welcome move
• Provision for recall of vehicles
• Framework for preventing overloading - this has been long overdue, so good thing
• Law prohibiting handheld and handsfree mobile phone use while driving - that probably means even bluetooth phone calls using car audio would be unlawful.
• Speed limits posted on all roads
• Motorcycle helmets to become mandatory for all drivers/passengers
• Child restraints, child zones, child helmets, and adult accountability
• More use of technology for compliance and national highway traffic regulation protection force would be set up
• There are going to be more rules/regulations for insurance companies including Provision of cashless treatment for victims of all accidents during ‘Golden Hour'

I also checked the draft to see if there are any changes/comments on the use of sun films, but unfortunately there is nothing (not sure if that would be under some different law). I think the government should make it clear through relevant acts regarding what kind of films would be permitted/not permitted.

[zenren]

Originally Posted by MandarMax

I also checked the draft to see if there are any changes/comments on the use of sun films, but unfortunately there is nothing (not sure if that would be under some different law). I think the government should make it clear through relevant acts regarding what kind of films would be permitted/not permitted.

Current law bans all sun films as well as any other material that is put on the glass area, irrespective of the visibility factor. Since the current law only allows OEM fitments as legal, there need not be a separate rule if ARAI regulations carry the same and it is allowed/disallowed at that level.

[Kumar R]

I just saw a news story on TOI re how traffic violation offences and rash driving leading to injury or death will become significantly more severe under the proposed law. It's a welcome move in theory though I have my concerns on the following:

- Do the majority of Indian traffic police have adequate training to enforce such offences?

- Are they even enforcing the laws with the existing fines? Everyday I see legions of vehicles violating lanes, one-ways, no-parking zones, no U-turn, etc. with absolute impunity.

- Is there any system to verify the charge (cctv, cameras)? Is it not unreasonable to fine a motorist Rs 10k-30k on the mere word of a policeman?

- Will any effort be made to keep this system jugaad-proof? Or will the non-connected folks continue to bear the brunt of law-enforcement?

- Will the existing system of assigning informal fee collection 'targets' to cops be stopped?

- Will the police be prepared to strictly enforce these offences and fines on groups such as taxis, autos, buses, government vehicles, etc.?

Call me a pessimist but in my view unless the answer to all these are 'yes', these well-meaning proposals will have no effect on making the roads any safer. Instead it will just be another means to extort 'ordinary' folks and make driving each day a higher risk gamble (I am fearful of being arbitrarily fined what is not a small amount by a tired traffic cop who is lagging behind on his daily quota). As is the common perception I have about such initiatives I suspect someone in the Ministry browsed onto an article celebrating strict fines and road safety laws in a Nordic country and decided to transplant those laws onto India, with no thought on the immense infrastructure that exists in those countries (which we lack) to implement such a system. Until the enforcement system (and hardware) itself is trustworthy no amount of programming can change the outcome.

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by Kumar R

Instead it will just be another means to extort 'ordinary' folks and make driving each day a higher risk gamble (I am fearful of being arbitrarily fined what is not a small amount by a tired traffic cop who is lagging behind on his daily quota).

Perhaps I should write to the e-mail IDs mentioned a couple of posts above. One thing the new law should do is to stop the provision for "compounding" offences. This is the official term for the traffic police officers directly levying a fine. Instead the police should charge a person with the offence and pass it onto the local traffic or magistrate courts for the actual sentencing. On the court date, the traffic police officer can be in the court to give evidence. The charged person can appear in person if he wishes so. Or else he can plead guilty and pay the fine to the court.

PS: Many of us may not know this. We can pay a fine to a court by using a simple money order. There is a provision to write a small note in the MO form. Use that to plead guilty. The other details would be there in the charge memo which the traffic police officer would give us. This would have the court date etc.

[MunnabhaiMBBS]

I welcome this move of re-drafting the Act.

Govt should also consider revising the maximum speed limit, load capacity & frequency of fitness check of privately owned cabs and school buses.

I also feel very disappointed and sad when I see no one cares to give way to an ambulance. So Govt may also want to convey the clear guidelines regarding making the way for ambulances to general public. (e.g. Move left, stop and give way etc.)

Regarding its effective implementation, I would like to point out the power of our existing judicial system. Hardly anyone believed Mr. Subramanian Swamy when he claimed to put central govt minister behind bars by using the same judicial system in 2G spectrum allocation case. One needs optimism, self-belief & perseverance to get this country forward. A strong need to look & think beyond media personalities.

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by MunnabhaiMBBS

I also feel very disappointed and sad when I see no one cares to give way to an ambulance. So Govt may also want to convey the clear guidelines regarding making the way for ambulances to general public. (e.g. Move left, stop and give way etc.)

In my humble opinion, this can only be a guide line. Because an ambulance may catch up with a vehicle on a narrow bridge. At that point all the vehicle driver can do is to increase speed, cross the bridge and then pull to the side. The ambulance driver (or the police) should not use this as an excuse to charge the other vehicle owner.

Regarding its effective implementation, I would like to point out the power of our existing judicial system.

It is a fact that our judiciary is over-loaded, and the rules are archaic. So there should be an over-haul in the judicial process itself. Court procedures (especially paper work) need to be simplified.

I also understand that the new act has jacked up the fine amount of very many traffic violations. This is good. Now there should also be a strict penalty for booking wrong cases. Such hefty fines also increases the chance of bribery. So in case a traffic police officer is caught taking a bribe penalties imposed on him should be equally higher. In many developed countries police men do not accept bribes mainly because:-
1. Their pay scale and life style are much much better than what we have in India. A person who is not very ambitious can pretty much make a decent living.
2. Corruption is taken very seriously. Harsh sentences are given, and that too within a short period of time. A police officer caught taking bribes generally can say "good bye" to the uniform. He would not be employed in any law enforcement agency any where in the country. So no sensible police officer would take a risk.

[sachinpk]

Now that I have some time to spare, did check the draft bill put up. Few random thoughts:-

1. Page #6 should make many of us happy here. Because law plans to have an easy (online) transfer of vehicles across states. One aspect I liked was that the new law is NOT taking away a revenue generation scheme for the states. States would still collect road tax, but now there would be a simplified process for re-registration.

2. I am not very happy in creation of around 3 more "agencies/authorities". I could not find information on what these agencies would do, and what would the state RTOs would do. If State RTO powers are getting reduced there may be whining from the state governments.

3.The actual draft of the law is there (the 2nd PDF). And it is pretty exhaustive. At one glance I could not figure out if the Motor Vehicle Act 1988 is getting scrapped, and this new law would become active. Or whether this new law is used in conjunction with MV Act 1988. All traffic offences are currently codified in MV Act 1988 (including the famous Sec.177 which is used to levy a fine of Rs.100/- and Sec.185 for charging drunk drivers).

PS: Folks from Bangalore, the photographs used in the PDF are that of Bangalore police. Will not miss it because of the unique white sloutch hat which BTP folks wear.

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by sachinayak

http://morth.nic.in/writereaddata/li...2322000032.pdf

This is the most crucial document, which I feel every Team BHP-ian should read. This 300+ page document is what is going to be the actual law, once Parliament passes it and President signs it off.

Some points, after a cursory glance of the document. Have noted down a few points/concerns which I would e-mail to the two people mentioned.

1. New "Force" to be raised - NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC REGULATION AND PROTECTION FORCE . How ever State governments can decide on how to recruit people to this force. Most likely it would be on deputation from State Police. It pretty much means that every state would have a highway patrol unit.

2. Centralised repositories for all major documents regarding a vehicle and its users (RC, DL etc. etc.). National Authority has one year to think about the new Vehicle Registration system, and three years to implement it. Same goes for the Unified Driving License system as well.

3. National Road Safety Authority gets budget from the Central Govt., while State Safety Authority need to get it from State Governments.

4. The bill clearly demarcates rules from fines & penalties. That is covered in separate schedules. Bill clearly states that Schedules can be re-drafted by notifications. Schedule II for Penalty points, Schedule III for fines, imprisonment etc. Overall the sentences are much more harsh and severe. There may be a hue and cry from the "poor and downtrodden" (who may be unionised - like auto rickshaw wallahs) that their entire income may go as fines. Also there is no similar harsh punishments for law enforcement officials who may misuse these provisions. There should be a point system for officials as well, as some of the punishments like 6 months imprisonment have far reaching implications.

Some relevant sections:-
Sec 97: Deals with change of address. Sec 97 (4) deals with the case of people moving from one state to other.
Sec 299 (3): Over-speeding private bus owners would face the music. As well as the folks who prepared the schedule.
Sec 307 (2): Banning of communication devices. The section clearly says that any device which helps people interactively communicate with each other. So whether it is hands free or handheld may not matter. Handsfree kits also connect to a hand held device. Exceptions to this are wireless sets to be used by authorised people.
Sec 317: Refusal to ply, stiffer fines.
Sec 336: MV Act of 1988 is getting repealed.
Sec 338: Allows evidence shared by common citizens to be used for prosecution.
Sec 339: Emergency vehicles to be given preference

[san2]

[*]Law prohibiting handheld and handsfree mobile phone use while driving - that probably means even bluetooth phone calls using car audio would be unlawful.

Can someone clarify this, does this mean that you cannot use your phone while driving, or we have to stop everytime we receive a call

[rama75]

Originally Posted by sachinpk

Perhaps I should write to the e-mail IDs mentioned a couple of posts above. One thing the new law should do is to stop the provision for "compounding" offences. This is the official term for the traffic police officers directly levying a fine. Instead the police should charge a person with the offence and pass it onto the local traffic or magistrate courts for the actual sentencing. On the court date, the traffic police officer can be in the court to give evidence. The charged person can appear in person if he wishes so. Or else he can plead guilty and pay the fine to the court.

PS: Many of us may not know this. We can pay a fine to a court by using a simple money order. There is a provision to write a small note in the MO form. Use that to plead guilty. The other details would be there in the charge memo which the traffic police officer would give us. This would have the court date etc.

In case of "compounding" too, Police mama might say " You've jumped the red signal. Go to the court and pay a fine of Rs.15000 or pay Rs.2000 to me and carry on!!!" I am not sure how these sort of extortions are going to ironed out.

[srishiva]

Even if the Police come up short on enforcing, the very fact that the fines are big will deter most people from breaking the law.

[sachinpk]

Sec 330: Deals with compounding of offences. Using this the State govt. officials (mainly police) can collect spot fines. The fine can be higher than the one provided in the Act, but cannot be lesser than that. If provision for imprisonment is there, such offences cannot be compounded. Court decides it. More than three similar offences, provision to compound would not work. Penalty points would be still be put on the license.

Some of the sections which would have provisions for compounding would be:
Sec 286 - General provision for punishment of offences
Sec 288 - Driving motor vehicles against rules given in some other sections
Sec 289 - allowing an unauthorised person to drive the vehicle
Sec 291 - offences related to regulation of vehicles.
Sec 293 (1),(2) - driving vehicle in unsafe conditions
Sec 294(3) - Driving without registering the vehicle. Rs 1 lakh is the fine !!!!
Sec 299(1) - hefty fines, mandatory refresher courses (but no prison sentences)
Sec 303 - Driving when mentally or physically unfit to drive.

Sec 331: Explains how Traffic offences can be summarily tried.

Originally Posted by san2

Can someone clarify this, does this mean that you cannot use your phone while driving, or we have to stop everytime we receive a call

I am sure enforcement of this law would be tricky. One thing this would lead to heavy misuse if it is a police man's words against the accused. There should be a more technically convincing proof (video, or call records with time & duration of call). I know lots of people in IT who would take the call when on drive. For them this would be a challenge. Fines for this offence are Rs.4000 for the first time, Rs.6000 for second time and Rs.10,000 for the third time.

This section reads..
(307) Offences relating to certain communication devices.
1. Whoever uses any handheld communication device while driving a motor vehicle
shall be punishable in accordance with Schedule III and shall be allocated penalty
points in accordance with Schedule II.

2. For the purpose of this section, “communication device” means a portable
communication device, other than a two-way radio where authorized, with which
a person is capable of making or receiving a call or performing an interactive
communication function with any other person {hands-free devices would fit this condition}.

3. For the purpose of this section, “uses” includes any activity that could divert a
person’s attention away from the primary task of driving. Such types of
distractions include, sending a short message service (SMS) message, watching a
video, other phone applications as may be specified by the National Authority.