[CPH]

Drunk driving should be penalised severly. I totally agree. But will it change in practise.

In Europe was the big debate to lower the limits for alcohol in the blood. In my views an absolute waste of time. The higher limits were okay as they did not create the problems. The problem was that the cops hardly nothered sorting the offenders in the first place.

Speed limits are needed in certain places. In other places they need removing. Slow driving for prolonged periods tire out people leading to accidents apart from people getting aggrevated for stupidity introduced by some theoretics in a planning department.

Truck drivers seem to get away with anything. A lot seem to drive deth traps. Any accident involving carelessness and resulting in casualties should be treated like attempted man slughter and when fatakities are involved then it should be treated like man slaughter.

Keeping a vehicle not up to safety standards including the correct use of tyres and tyre pressure should result in hefty penalties.

Drunk drivers should be banned for life.

Authorities should be charged as well when roads are not safe to drive on because of pot holes etc.

And authorities should have the duty to justify why speed limits are set and then work on the road conditions with a set time to be able to lift the speed limit.

On dual carriage ways there is no need to have rediculous speed limits. No oncoming traffic is hitting motorists.

In the UK an increase of the speed limit is considered and Poland has just raised the speed limit in motorways to 140kph.

[punkuz]

Does the New Motor vehicles act prescribe rules for nationwide transfer of private vehicles also

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by punkuz

Does the New Motor vehicles act prescribe rules for nationwide transfer of private vehicles also

I doubt it. They are out to extract every last paisa out of us. Do not forget the FM is a dyed in the wool Nehruvian socialist at heart.

They will have a simple answer - taxation is a state subject so we cannot legislate on it. It is high tiimt that

1. We had uniform taxation of vehicles, fuels, and Road Fund across the country.

2. Vehicles could move round with no separate taxation in each state.

3. A centralised register/database of vehicles.

I do hear that all RTOs are being networked by the end of the year. I wish and hope (but then, if wishes were horses ...) that this is considered as a part of the GST related reforms.

[noopster]

They should have used the opportunity wisely to tackle the following menaces (IMHO the biggest causes of accidents that nobody talks about): - Owners of trucks that do not have full functional rear lights should be made accountable for all the cars that crash into them from the back at night - All vehicles driving on the wrong side should be mandatorily fined and repeat offenders have their licenses revoked.

[lloydofcochin]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

Welcome move by the government. These amendments should also be extended to other Motor Vehicles Act. I had listed applicable fines in this thread. I believe these fines were calculated based on the economy of 1988 and is a pittance for present day road users to pay off. They should have increased these fines by 100x and implement a special scheme by which cops would get a part of the fine as an incentive. Wouldn't that be a deterrent for policemen who choose bribes against fines?

100% in agreement to the above suggestion

I feel that the Cops should be paid about 30% of the fine levied as incentive and that would ensure that they will be keen on stricter enforcement of the available laws.

Now there should be checks and balances here as well. Any Cop who is found to be harassing the vehicle owners, taking bribes or abusing the provisions of the law should be sternly dealt with. Repeated offenders should be dismissed from service sans any benefits.

[aby]

High fines are great in theory, but in our practice with the corrupt Pandus all around, it will be just another excuse to harass poor drivers.

I had a bad experience recently. I took a left turn which was not a free left turn (and the sign had got faded) and got duly stopped by a thulla.

His first reaction Rs. 200 without bill or 500 fine. My loud mouth wouldn't keep quiet and I told him that the actual fine as per RTO for taking a left (Where no free left) was Rs. 200, so he better give me bill. Instead the thulla got wild, and threatened to put speeding and other offenses to the rap sheet. Finally after pleading and cajoling he agreed to let me go for Rs. 100 without bill.

In short while higher fines are good, there has to be mechanism to prevent our good for nothing, corrupt thullas from harassing everyone. For speeding I say, unless accompanied by a printout from speed gun, the charge should not be valid. The higher fines proposed should be enough to let the cops procure speed guns and breath analyzers.

[FanaticOnWheels]

Speed limits have never been defined logically on 95% of our stretches. A four lane road in the outskirts of Chennai that always sports sparse traffic has a speed limit of 40 km/hr. It is absolutely ridiculous.

[freakmuzik]

Its a good move provided the manner in which they enforce is pimped up! And I would like to see something like a license review every 4 years or something, if planned properly, can cancel the licenses of the foolish and thoughtless drivers, which can make them do better the next time they appear! But this too, as long as people bribe and get licenses, whats a review going to do to improve the condition? If not worsen it by more bribing? I know I have answered my own question but if done properly, this could be a boon! And introducing lane discipline is very much needed, but its not an easy task, as 99% of the drivers just know to press the accelerator and move on! What say?

[drrajasaravanan]

Hi
I have been involved in drunk and driving accident. I was knocked out of my bike by a drunk person driving a car in the signal in front of the police. At the end of it (though i did not protest but ask the driver to be careful when he is driving) the traffic constable made some decent dough while i did not want to press any complaint. This law will be twisted by every traffic cop to make more money and will serve no purpose. What is the point in making more laws when the existing ones are not followed. Cheers.

[StarrySky]

Agree that the speed limits are low and need to be reconsidered.

The fines have gone up, which is a good deterrant. Where the fine earlier was Rs.100, it has gone up to Rs.1000 in many cases. So even if offenders try to bribe the police, I guess they will still have to shell out Rs.300-400 as bribe, which is way more than Rs.30-40 now.

Originally Posted by gemithomas

The best would be to bring in a system to decide speed based on vehicle capabilities like power, class, age of vehicle etc. This is because 100km/hr might be dangerous on an ambassador but this might be nothing for a luxury class SUV costing above 40L!!!

No, it would be dangerous on a highway to have vehicles with different speed limits. The speed differentials between vehicles would be too large and the highway would be unsafe for everyone.

[avisidhu]

Originally Posted by lloydofcochin

100% in agreement to the above suggestion

I feel that the Cops should be paid about 30% of the fine levied as incentive and that would ensure that they will be keen on stricter enforcement of the available laws.

Now there should be checks and balances here as well. Any Cop who is found to be harassing the vehicle owners, taking bribes or abusing the provisions of the law should be sternly dealt with. Repeated offenders should be dismissed from service sans any benefits.

+1. I don't know if my knowledge is accurate, but since around 2-3 years back the Ticket Checkers of trains have been provided such an incentive. I traveled by trains quite a lot recently, and the TC would fine everyone in a proper way without taking any bribes. Fellow Team-BHPians might be having better knowledge of this, and the exact mechanism involved.
As far as harassment by cops is concerned, yes that is indeed true and someone needs to work on the implementation part first. Having said that, such strict measures are not desperately needed to bring some order to the ever increasing chaos our roads are becoming.

[samarth.bhatia]

Enforcement of law is a shady concept indeed.
We speak about what happens outside India. We speak about how certain limits on speed on certain roads need to be enhanced.
Where, in all this, does the enforcement to these laws go?
No doubt the money factor would be a deterrent to some persons. But to what extent?
GOI is surely not working on this in the right direction. This needs to dealt with giving it a little more thoughtful and thorough analysis.
According to me, the following can be some rough steps to deal with this:

1. As was rightly pointed out, what first needs to be enforced is stricter testing of drivers-to-be. That would imbibe responsible driving in the new drivers.

2. The next step should be working on methods to promote the Police force to also be more responsible to their duty. A new thread can actually be started here talking about suggestions for these methods.

3. The last step would be to increase the existing fines/definitions of traffic violations.
(Which is, for some absurd reason, being taken up as the first step!)

At some point, I'm sure most of here would have been victim to the not-so-lawful attitude of the law enforcers. If that has to be changed, it demands a more thoughtful approach than to just modify existing norms/amounts charged for violations.

Force should not be the approach to enforcing any set of rules. That should be the last step. An individual should be shown why it is important to be responsible. Whether on the road or elsewhere.

Cheers and drive safe.
Sam

[pgsagar]

Stricter penalties for speeding and drunken driving? Well, only for "aam janta". Not for brash spoilt sons of politicians.

[rajtheindian]

Originally Posted by CPH

In the UK an increase of the speed limit is considered and Poland has just raised the speed limit in motorways to 140kph.

Just responding for one point here, but that could answer the rest.
In UK you need to pass the theory and "Hazard perception" test prior to the actual driving test. The driving test in UK focus on various areas, how you react, how is your driving style, etc. These days they introduce a new test last 10 minutes of your driving test you need to drive on your own, the examiner will monitor you, before this test starts he'll tell you the destination, you need use road signs and your navigational skill to drive from point a to b.
A Speed limit of 70 is OK for people who got license after all these tests, but a country like in india where you can buy a license it is better to keep the speed limit to where it is now. We could revisit once if the conditions improves.

[moralfibre]

Finally, after almost a year, the MVA has been amended after an approval from the cabinet.

- Rash driving: Rs. 5,000/-
- Driving while talking on the cell phone: Rs. 5,000/-

The average trend shows a ten fold increase in the fines though finer details are still awaited.

Source: Link. and Link.