[TusharK]

The Gurgaon traffic police will start imposing a fine of up to Rs 10,000 for not allowing emergency vehicles like ambulances and fire trucks to pass through, starting this week.



According to reports, the police will capture video recordings of incidents involving drivers blocking emergency vehicles. The offenders will receive online challans along with the video evidence. The fine will be imposed under Section 194E of the Motor Vehicle Act.

DCP Virender Vij stated that this will help to save those in a serious condition, who are on their way to the hospital. “The traffic police is already providing green corridors for ambulances carrying organs meant for transplant to different hospitals and helping to save the lives of serious patients,” he added.

Source: ET Auto

Link to Team-BHP News

[Chugh_H]

A very welcome move! I am always shocked with the behaviour I see in Delhi and Gurgaon towards an Ambulance. Not just people lack basic empathy and sympathy to give way, many do not understand that moving bumper to bumper behind an ambulance could also be a risk & restriction for the vehicle. An ambulance to many is a ticket to cut through traffic. Bangalore, in comparison, is much more sensitive to an emergency vehicle.
I hope a dashcam is fit to every Ambulance / Fire truck which is then actively used to find such offenders and fine them.

[A M]

Good move. But, it needs to be fine-tuned to ensure the ambulance drivers do not take advantage. If the ambulance is neither carrying patients nor going to pick any patients, and sirens are used to cut through traffic, the ambulance driver must be challaned. Maybe make it mandatory to have a camera installed in the ambulance cabin.

[Y@SH]

Fine should be double for those who tailgate any emergency vehicles and extending to ones who break signals after an emergency vehicle as passed. Ive seen motorcycles, cars, rickshaw drivers tailgate and also follow the emergency vehicle onto the wrong side !

[Mystic]

A good move but the fine is very steep as our traffic is a chaos with people driving with no civic sense, road sense and common sense. A responsible citizen who has been driving all his life abroad with giving access to ambulances cannot do the same in India due to circumstances which are in no one’s control.

Thank God we don't have to see the following in our major cities yet:


https://www.c-nes.org/2351/an-ambula...ue-with-dhaka/

[Apex1815]

The obvious rationale behind giving priority way to the Ambulance is well understood and need no debate.

But how about the Dense Traffic areas Example in Bangalore. Even people want to give way to ambulance but the Traffic is Grid locked from all sides. Under such circumstance how the culprit is going to be identified ? Will it be the immediate vehicle in front of the ambulance who is unable to move to any side because road is jam packed with vehicles from all sides ?

This rule may create unncessary panic in Traffic, people will start colliding with each other to give way to ambulance resulting in additional job for the ambulance.

[ruskinash]

Originally Posted by Apex1815

The obvious rationale behind giving priority way to the Ambulance is well understood and need no debate.

But how about the Dense Traffic areas Example in Bangalore. Even people want to give way to ambulance but the Traffic is Grid locked from all sides. Under such circumstance how the culprit is going to be identified ? Will it be the immediate vehicle in front of the ambulance who is unable to move to any side because road is jam packed with vehicles from all sides ?

This rule may create unncessary panic in Traffic, people will start colliding with each other to give way to ambulance resulting in additional job for the ambulance.

This is applicable only in Gurgaon. In Bangalore, the patient has to pray.

[callvvijay]

While I commend the move made by the traffic regulatory authority, like a few have said here, there should also be a check on whether the ambulance is indeed going to address a critical issue.

A few years back my dad was hospitalized (he was quite fine - the admission was necessitated just to rule out a particular condition) in a small hospital where the scan facilities were not available. He was taken to a popular scan centre across the city (Chennai) - a distance of appox., 15 kms. From the moment the ambulance started from the hospital, the siren was blaring. My dad even asked if this is necessary - since he was otherwise quite fine. The ambulance driver said that it would be easy for him to drive as people would leave him way.

Not to generalize - but, most of the Maruti Omni / Eeco ambulances - and esp., those operated by the scan centres do this.

My suggestion would be - when an ambulance comes with the siren blaring, a police should escort it all the way to the destination (either to the hospital / accident site etc.,). This way, the ambulance is not stopped enroute. Once they are at the destination, the cops can do a due diligence of whether it was actually a case of necessity or a luxury.

While I suggest this improvement, I also know that it would be difficult to incorporate this due to the lesser manpower in the police department.

Cheers!

[lazy]

Welcome and a sad move - welcome for obvious reasons, sad because Indians need such a hefty fine to do the right thing.

It does sound good on paper, only wondering the extent of misuse of this good rule by the the most corrupt department in the country !!

Clearly, I have very little hopes from people in positions of authority. (not just India, elsewhere too - the over-speeding cop who killed an Indian student in the US walked free)

cheers
lazy

[Shreyans_Jain]

This is the kind of move that seems great on paper, but is prone is all kinds of misuse. There is nothing much any driver can do for an ambulance or any other emergency vehicle when you are stuck in rush hour traffic. It is basically a gridlock. And, every hour is rush hour in a place like Gurgaon which works 24x7.

Ultimately this will be yet another provision that will be misused to harass people and primarily generate revenue, both legal and otherwise.

[rishi.roger]

Critical or Not, the last place any Ambulance deserves to be in, is stuck in traffic. Even an empty Ambulance not in use can all of sudden become important.
I'm happy to give way to emergency vehicles of any sort due to their nature of job. The only issue I face is some dumb drivers who wouldn't let you give way to ambulances as they honk the life out of you. ThankFully now I can share the Dashcam footages to cops if I find any such incidents.
I hope people develop empathy towards emergency vehicles.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by callvvijay

...there should also be a check on whether the ambulance is indeed going to address a critical issue.

Originally Posted by A M

But, it needs to be fine-tuned to ensure the ambulance drivers do not take advantage.

I think the instances where ambulance drivers might misuse the siren are too small to warrant any additional effort into checking for that. And the far bigger issue of making people give way reflexively to an emergency vehicle also overrides that trivial (in comparison) concern.

[anjan_c2007]

The amendment as Section 194 E of the Motor Vehicles Act was effective from 02.08.2021 vide notification as the 16th GSR no.525 (E). It is applicable throughout India. Haryana has commenced doing so with maybe a few other states/UT's.

The Section reads as:-

194E. Failure to allow free passage to emergency vehicles.-- Whoever while driving a motor vehicle fails to draw to the side of the road, on the approach of a fire service vehicle or of an ambulance or other emergency vehicle as may be specified by the State Government, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or with a fine of ten thousand rupees or with both.

There is also a provision in Section194E for imprisonment of upto six months. And emergency vehicles include not only ambulances and fire fighting vehicles but as per the wide definition, these include those used during natural and man-made calamities too and a host of others.

What is intriguing is that their is no antidote for errant emergency vehicles masquerading as such that are in reality not doing emergency duties. To defend one against such challans, sections from our IPC and CrPC could be applied, but in most cases would have to be contested in courts of law if innocents are victimised and pushed to the wall.

[A M]

Originally Posted by am1m

I think the instances where ambulance drivers might misuse the siren are too small to warrant any additional effort into checking for that. And the far bigger issue of making people give way reflexively to an emergency vehicle also overrides that trivial (in comparison) concern.

Such instances are far too common my friend. Many small hospitals lease ambulances from these owner-operators. These ambulance drivers have a side hustle of ferrying regular commuters from their villages to cities when they travel for duty every morning, minimising their expenses.

[deathwalkr]

Let's not get too bogged down by whether the ambulance/fire engine is actively on an emergency and let's just give way as soon as we can.