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Old 20th June 2012, 11:35   #1
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Indian Government invites Suggestions on Road Safety

This notification from the government inviting suggestions on improving road safety appeared in today's Bangalore edition of Deccan Herald. Sharing this so interested bhp-ians can contribute. Probably most relevant suggestions could come from this community. You need to email/snail mail your suggestions to the address in this notification. Posting here will not help much .

Indian Government invites Suggestions on Road Safety-roadsafetynotification.jpg


Mods: Thought it relevant to this forum since it impacts the Indian Auto Scene. Please move/merge as you feel appropriate. Thanks.

Last edited by Bh.P : 20th June 2012 at 11:42. Reason: Expanded Thx to Thanks. Removed simley icon from subject.
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Old 20th June 2012, 13:23   #2
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Re: Government Invites Suggestions on Road Safety

This is really nice move by the government although no idea if they will actually go through it considering the state of affairs as of now.Nevertheless,i feel we all should come out with suggestions and all suggestions can be tabulated and sent to them as a collective effort of TeamBHP.My suggestions:-

1. First and foremost,Corruption is to be rooted out,or else nothing really matters.It has direct ramifications on road safety,be it as idiots having licence to drive procured by bribing the DTO office or the contractors making sub-sub standard roads/bridges.

2. The process of issue of Driving Licence should be made more stringent.There should be written exam followed by driving tests and these have to be repeated after expiry of licence.

3. Road safety signages and other important markers should be on the highways and roads.(Very important as i had nearly driven off an incomplete flyover at night near Lucknow with no caution board as the policeman on duty to stop vehicles was busy collecting money from truckers.).

4. Start road safety education in all schools as everyone is a road user,be it a pedestrian or a motorist.

5. Truck and bus drivers should have a mandatory vision testing every 2 years as i hardly see the oldies driving around with specs!

6. All vehicle manufacturers should be enforced to provide bare minimum safety features in their vehicles.And they should also be accountable for a failure in these safety systems.

7. Vehicles not obeying traffic rules on highways should be fined and impounded.2/3 wheelers entering on expressway(Delhi-Gurgaon) or tractors with trailors or overloaded trucks should be taken to task.

8. Gruesome graphic images and actual photographs should be put up as banners on highways to desist people from insane driving.
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Old 20th June 2012, 13:26   #3
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Re: Government Invites Suggestions on Road Safety

Issue licences the way Finland does. This one step can improve road safety by leaps and bounds.

Driving licence in Finland - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Old 20th June 2012, 14:31   #4
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Re: Government Invites Suggestions on Road Safety

They should implement road safety rules for people in and working for the government first, the common man can then follow their examples.

The sad story is that all these damn rules are nothing but an excuse for making more money and harassing people. I have never seen police vehicles or government vehicles ever strictly adhering to rules.

I pray for the day when we the common man stand up and teach these stupid moronic leaders and policy makers a lesson. Judging by the way things are going I am quite certain that the breaking point is not far away.
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Old 20th June 2012, 14:35   #5
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Re: Government Invites Suggestions on Road Safety

About a ton of suggestions come to mind but I'll keep it down to two which IMO are pretty essential to maintain an overall fair experience while commuting.

1. Education. As already pointed out above, there should be a stringent written and behind the wheel test before issuing a drivers license. In addition, traffic schools should be set up with incentives in the form of insurance breaks, (or something similar) for those who have completed such courses. Specifically, these traffic schools should be geared towards those who usually do not or would not have access to such information/education. Such as taxi, rickshaw, tempo, truck, or any other public transport drivers. Basic concepts such as on road safety as well as vehicle safety should be a topic of focus.

2. Fitness tests for vehicles. This needs to be enforced with near zero tolerance for all vehicles. I'd 7 or 10 years should be the limit after which the cars should be required to have a fitness certificate or something similar. Especially for public transport vehicles such as taxis and buses, and goods transport and carriers such as tempos, tankers etc. I've seen way too many of these vehicles that have no brake lights, turn signals, or any lights for that matter, aside from head lights. Not only are these vehicles a hazard to other commuters and pedestrians, but they also have a tendency to break the flow of traffic because they just cannot keep up with most cars today.

Aside from these two there are many more suggestions such as infrastructure and traffic routing solutions but for now these IMO should get more priority. I just hope somebody would actually implement ANY of the suggestions mentioned in this thread (the good ones).

Last edited by Macfreak7 : 20th June 2012 at 14:38. Reason: yes
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Old 20th June 2012, 16:14   #6
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Re: Indian Government invites Suggestions on Road Safety

Seem like an effort worth supporting. The canvas seems really broad which is good from a strategic planning perspective but not so good from an execution point of view.

While such initiatives at the parliamentary level are required they must go hand in hand with reform processes within government organizations such as regional RTOs, highways depts & private stake holders such as driving schools, road contractors & first responders to accidents.

It makes little sense that state and private stakeholders continue to operate arbitrarily with little accountability and a severe lack of trained staff.

And this initiative needs to have sound financial backing in order to succeed. One hopes that the authorities in charge will also seek expertise from overseas - either from private or state organizations with an Asian perspective - to bridge systemic and training related gaps.
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Old 20th June 2012, 17:56   #7
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Re: Indian Government invites Suggestions on Road Safety

I believe a good starting point is to enforce the existing laws diligently.
How many times have you faced a problem because someone breaks a signal, or turns from a wrong lane. How many times have you seen a vehicle emitting so much smoke, that you wonder if they have the PUC certificate.
So, we do have some robust laws (and some stupid ones like the sun film law), but the problem is enforcing them.
This could be because of the sheer volumes being unmanageable by the meager enforcement force, or the corrupt practices. However, I believe, today we have some low cost technological alternatives to enforce some of these laws transparently and effectively to improve the situation.
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Old 20th June 2012, 18:38   #8
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Re: Indian Government invites Suggestions on Road Safety

LED Brake lights.

Please suggest mandatory usage of LED brake/tail light on commercial vehicles. Trucks, buses, etc.

Somebody can make some money out of this, but the safety in return is priceless.

Cheers.
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Old 20th June 2012, 18:42   #9
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Re: Indian Government invites Suggestions on Road Safety

As the leading Forum on Automobiles lets invite internal suggestions.
Then lets compile and send them the details as the TBHP recommendations.
What say?

Start simply with things like lane discipline, seatbelts, helmets etc etc.
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Old 20th June 2012, 19:34   #10
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Re: Indian Government invites Suggestions on Road Safety

Should we not collect all good ideas from tbhpians and then the mods can submit this as feedback from the knowledgeable tbhp community. Maybe many of us sign onto the feedback ?
@GTO what do you think ?
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Old 20th June 2012, 21:01   #11
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Re: Indian Government invites Suggestions on Road Safety

I have a simple suggestion: create a 6-8 member committee, consisting of automotive crash experts, and send them to investigate every accident on tolled national highways (to start with). Implement their recommendations within the timeframe given by the experts themselves.

Something like what happens when there is an air crash.
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Old 22nd June 2012, 19:05   #12
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Re: Indian Government invites Suggestions on Road Safety

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bh.P View Post
This notification from the government inviting suggestions on improving road safety appeared in today's Bangalore edition of Deccan Herald. Sharing this so interested bhp-ians can contribute. Probably most relevant suggestions could come from this community. You need to email/snail mail your suggestions to the address in this notification. Posting here will not help much .

Attachment 943699


Mods: Thought it relevant to this forum since it impacts the Indian Auto Scene. Please move/merge as you feel appropriate. Thanks.

The following ad is a Young Lion winning entry at the Cannes Advertising Awards 2012. Hope this becomes a reality and the roads are safer !!
Attached Thumbnails
Indian Government invites Suggestions on Road Safety-35662_pop.jpg  

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Old 22nd June 2012, 20:45   #13
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Re: Indian Government invites Suggestions on Road Safety

For road safety drivers must be trained properly, this can only be enforced while obtaining a driving license. At present RTO’s are just distributing licenses without any proper on-road & classroom tests, also a breeding ground for rampant corruption.

Secondly our roads and road signs needs to be improved drastically so that people can follow rules properly. Unscientifically designed humps, potholes/craters and dividers are directly contributing to lot of accidents.

Thirdly vehicles needs to pass some sort of mandatory safety inspection once they are say 5 yrs old.

All city roads needs to be planned considering the pedestrians and 2 wheelers users as we have a sizable population moving on foot & 2 wheelers.
India needs to focus more on mass transportation systems as we cannot afford private transportation for all, I mean on the infrastructure front. I face massive traffic jams here on US roads which have 8 +lanes each sides, hence definitely more private cars on the road for daily commute is certainly not the answers for our wows.
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Old 3rd July 2012, 13:39   #14
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Re: Indian Government invites Suggestions on Road Safety

Did any of our members or moderators send their feedback to the parliamentary committee ? We have so many discussion pages on the topic of road safety \ accidents \ bad driving and this is an opportunity to actually voice our views and suggestions to the authorities. I sent out a short ppt to the email id indicated in the newspaper advert. The skeptic in me knows that it will be of little consequence but the optimist believes that there is a possibility that things will improve and that individual voices can gel to become a loud catalyst to bring about change.
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Old 3rd July 2012, 14:55   #15
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Re: Indian Government invites Suggestions on Road Safety

If there is a provision to sue the local municipal corp for keeping the road and surrounding area unworthy of driving - and thus causing accidents - half the problems will vanish.

Another half will go away if the driver or the pedestrian caught with active mobile phone during the accident forgoes his chance of insurance claim and slapped with charges equivalent to (attempt to) planned murder in cold blood.
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