[haria]

The way India drives may be finally set to change.
Reports have revealed that the Road Transport and Highways ministry is likely to approve the changes proposed in the Motor Vehicles Bill at its next meeting.


The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill contains a range of provisions that will go a long way in making Indian roads safer.



See link:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com...w/69823206.cms


Listed below are the most important ones among the measures proposed by this vital bill.

- The government will provide compensation of Rs 2 lakh or more to the victim's family in cases of hit-and-run fatalities. The current provision is just for Rs 25,000.

- In cases of traffic violations by juveniles, the guardian/owner of the car will be held responsible — unless they can prove that the offence was committed without their knowledge or they tried to prevent it. The juvenile will be tried under the Juvenile Justice Act. The registration of the vehicle involved will stand cancelled.

- Minimum fine for drunk driving has been increased from Rs 2,000 to Rs 10,000. The penalty for rash driving has been hiked from Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000.

- Driving without a licence will attract a minimum fine of Rs 5,000 (it's Rs 500 at present). Over-speeding will set you back by Rs 1,000-2,000 (currently Rs 400). Driving without wearing seatbelt would attract a fine of Rs 1,000 as against Rs 100 at present.

- Talking on mobile phone while driving will attract a fine of Rs 5,000, up sharply from the current Rs 1,000.
A Motor Vehicle Accident Fund will provide compulsory insurance cover to all road users in the country for certain types of accidents.

- Vehicles whose components/engine do not meet the required standards will have to be recalled. Manufacturers can be fined up to Rs 500 crore over sub-standard components or engine.

- A 6-month time limit has been specified for applying for compensation to the Claims Tribunal in road accident cases.

- Aadhaar will be compulsory for getting a driving licence and vehicle registration.

- Civic agencies, contractors, consultants will be accountable for faulty design, construction or poor maintenance of roads causing accidents.

- The cap on liability for third-party insurance will be removed. The 2016 Bill had put a cap on the maximum liability at Rs 10 lakh for death and Rs 5 lakh for grievous injury.

- The time limit for renewal of driving licence is increased from one month to one year before and after the expiry date.

- There is a provision for protection of Good Samaritans — the ones who come forward to help accident victims will be protected from civil or criminal liability. It will be optional for them to disclose their identity to the police or medical personnel.

[UB_007]

Good and a progressive move by the Government in this regards. Eagerly waiting to see how many of these provisions will actually pass through the approval committee

Another question is if the licensing standards will be be improved. Making it more stringent would definitely ensure a better learning process and would automatically make our roads much safer from stupid drivers.

At present in India for many, the definition of knowing how to drive is nothing more than to push the gas pedal and hit the brakes. Sad that most of the learning happens only after getting a license and not before

-UB

[2000rpm]

AMAZING!!! As a responsible citizen frustrated with the traffic management system, I have tears in my eyes .

Every point above is bang on! They missed one though.

Nowadays, we have so many pedestrians using head phones while walking, crossing. They need to be stopped as well. These morons cause lot of trouble to even responsible drivers.

[sushantr5]

But does the Government have sufficient majority to pass the law in the upper house? It has been lingering in the Rajya Sabha for a long time. And states being the main opposition to this amendment, I have little doubt that it will make it through Rajya Sabha this time.

[anjan_c2007]

The bill was long overdue. It had hit speedbreakers with the people's representatives. Most road users in our country are very lackadaisical, negligent, self-centered, casual and indisciplined, while another class is brash, even reckless, wanton, rash and shameless, when it comes to their behaviour as drivers in traffic. Permutations and combinations of all such negative characters, with each particular individual plays havoc and kills and maims thousands of innocent victims every year, with the perpetrators becoming victims too, in most cases.

And traffic violations are fined with ridiculously low amounts. For instance, wrong side driving presently attracts a fine of Rs 200=00 and so also a parking violation attracts Rs 200=00. One can easily bribe a policeman and escape by paying a hundred rupees in most cases.

In the case of drunk driving, if a driver is caught drunk in say Punjab and he drives in Maharashtra and is again caught, he is a repeat offender. Sections 185 (a) and (b) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 define the punishments for first and second or more offences respectively. The punishment for a second or more offence/s is more grave viz. higher fine of Rs 3000, as compared to Rs 2000 (old existting rates) for the first, jail term of upto 3 years (2 years for first offence but rarely invoked) and suspension/ cancellation of driving licence. But surprisingly, there is no mechanism to detect a second offence and seggregate it from the first offence and so the drunk driver booked in Punjab can again be booked for a first offence in Maharashtra, when caught for the second time. There is no such software even today that detects first, second or third or more offences of an erring, drunk driver. It is the same scenario in case of all grave traffic offenders which should be detectable as first, second or more offence/s.

They have proposed to raise the fine from Rs 2000 to Rs 10,000 for the first offence in the new bill.

The new fines will be a deterrent though, but at the same time the bribe money to the "popular" class of corrupt policemen will multiply, to illegally compound such offences.

[NaXal]

All rules are quite ok and easy to follow except that speed fine rule.

Don't get me wrong, I have absolutely no problem in following speed rules but the issue are something different.

1. Completely unscientific way to speed limiting. Road design or category has no role to play where locals with the help of politicians simply force what ever speed limit they want & where ever they want.

2. Unionised heavy, larger & commercial vehicles simply drive as they please & push you to maintain there speed. Being regular on their respective route, they are aware of speed traps & they have their saviours too. Innocent motorist ends up as easy pray for police speed traps.

3. Complete lack of road signs for speed limit & even if they put few, due to zero maintenance, within months they are completely gone. Yet speed traps set up by police won't care about an innocent motorist unable to judge.

They need to rethink the idea of imposing speed limits according to Indian conditions. Like default speed limit of expressway is 120, NH to 80, SH to 60 & municipal roads to 40. Unless there is a clear sign to alter that limit.

Secondly, they must ensure that in no way state government to use these fine related funds as a source of their budget & ends up issuing targets to their respective police department for collection.

WB police departments are notorious for fulfilling targets. Somehow all checks are based on target, once that is achieved, they are off to their usual lethargic state. Secondly, they don't mess with any commercial vehicles. Simply to avoid bullying by those respective union.

Just today I am stopped with our 2013 Santro for "random" paper/document check where as I could see all most 100% bikers are crossing that check without helmet & with triple carry. Respective police check point has no intention on looking at them & they are targeting few specific vehicle. Judging by the type of & age of the vehicles stopped, looked like they have "Target" for something specific (like road tax violation).

I didn't mind, it's just couple of mins to produce the papers & I am allowed to leave but feels odd where I am stopped but beside me all most all are violating rules right in front.

[GTO]

Must say, this is a well thought-out amendment bill and there are lots of sensible changes proposed. I'm all for increasing the fines to really stiff levels. The objective of fines is to strongly dissuade someone from breaking the rules and the fact is, today's 100 - 500 rupee fines are hardly that. Heck, parking at some malls is more expensive than this.

Originally Posted by haria

In cases of traffic violations by juveniles, the guardian/owner of the car will be held responsible — unless they can prove that the offence was committed without their knowledge or they tried to prevent it. The juvenile will be tried under the Juvenile Justice Act.

[CrippledLucifer]

I'd personally like to see some form of control against two wheelers especially in UP. Obvious minors take out their family motorcycles onto the highway while carrying three sometimes four individuals! Not only is it dangerous, it's extremely reckless too. I've never seen the police enforce anything on highways. People blatantly drive past the police with no helmet or with multiple passengers with zero sense of fear.


Just two months ago on NH30 I witnessed two youths swerving on their bike and being otherwise fools while driving like total maniacs. They ended up rear ending a parked truck and both driver as well as passenger were instantly killed by the sheer impact of the collision. Such an enormous waste of life.


There has to be more stringent laws governing two wheelers. I personally detest driving on the highways at any time during the day because of the way motorcycles riders behave, especially in the more rural sections of the highway. They never check for oncoming cars and just merge onto the highway. I much prefer traveling in the evening or extremely early in morning when all the bike commuters are at home. The time saved as well as fuel consumption saved speak volumes for themselves.

[DaptChatterjee]

Originally Posted by haria

In cases of traffic violations by juveniles, the guardian/owner of the car will be held responsible — unless they can prove that the offence was committed without their knowledge or they tried to prevent it. The juvenile will be tried under the Juvenile Justice Act. The registration of the vehicle involved will stand cancelled.

This part of the law in particular was badly needed. Spoilt kids, with easy access of automobiles, has become a nuisance.

I do however fear that the rise in fines will only increase the bribe amount and innocents may be stopped and harassed especially during the festive seasons. Lets hope for the best!

[sdp1975]

The ruling party and its allies are about 20 short of majority in the upper house. The bill is very unlikely to be passed in its current form with the states seeing it as infringing on their autonomy and their opposition to it.

There was a proposal to split the bill into 2 parts - one relating to the safety aspects and fines , and the other related to non-safety aspects , but I don't think that materialized.

[rovingeye]

Originally Posted by haria

The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill contains a range of provisions that will go a long way in making Indian roads safer.

There is one point that's glaringly absent from this list. Where is the stiff penalty for wrong side driving? I see bikes and cars driving on the wrong side of the road, most of the times under the nose of the traffic police - whether it be Okhla or Noida or Gurgaon. Why aren't these illiterate people punished for causing traffic snarls?

[GrandTourer]

Originally Posted by GTO

Must say, this is a well thought-out amendment bill and there are lots of sensible changes proposed. I'm all for increasing the fines to really stiff levels. The objective of fines is to strongly dissuade someone from breaking the rules and the fact is, today's 100 - 500 rupee fines are hardly that. Heck, parking at some malls is more expensive than this.

I have a slightly different take on this. I believe increasing the fines to 1000+ rupees will be a big deterrent in traffic law enforcement. The reason I say this is that currently with fines of 100-500, a lot of people would pay them and get a receipt. However with fines on the better side of a thousand will make sure that cops let off these folks with a bribe equal to the previous fine. Hence no record of offenders is created in the system (no repeat offenders ever)

Folks would gladly pay 100-500 bribe to be let off and won't demand a receipt.
The way I see it, corruption will increase and the govt would be none the wiser.

The only way it will work is automatic challan. But it's not foolproof yet. Not all RTO databases are linked together, and not all cities have the infrastructure yet.

Maybe in a few years we'll be able to correctly fine the offender's, but until then I believe the existing fines are just fine.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for punishing offenders severely on the roads. But just think we are not ready yet for an increase in fines.

[SideView]

Good bill.

But how much of this fine amount will really go to government coffers, that we have to wait and see on how this is enforced.

Have seen a lot of vehicles plying on road with active fines on them, maybe it good to double the fine if they do not pay it within a deadline (six months?). But nonetheless should dissuade the general public to an extent since the bribe money will also increase propotionally.

[himanshugoswami]

They should also have a provision where the enforcement authorities have to show proof of violation at the time of imposing the fine. For example, talking on mobile phone, no seatbelt etc should have photo evidence. It may take some infra upgrade by way of CCTV cams and go pro cams for patrol cops, but will drastically reduce on the spot bribes to get out of paying fines/impounding etc. as well as harassment at the hands of the authorities at the time of target completion.

[subraiyr]

While this is very good move by Govt on paper, execution and implementation is of prime importance. There should also be penalty against authorities for not implementing these rules in the strictest manner
The other thing i can think of is Road Fitness certificate. We have emission certificates, but what about road fitness for passenger vehicles as well. I have not seen anything like that for passenger vehicles unless i am missing something. Might help decongest roads from really unfit vehicles. I also dont see this handled in the strictest manner with private buses and vans at least in Bangalore. The guys getting caught are the tempos and the three wheelers whereas the private buses happily trudge along