Road Safety Bill gets Cabinet’s nod, hefty penalties for traffic violators in the offing

In a much-awaited step, designed at making Indian roads safer for motorists and pedestrians and also saving thousands of lives each year, the Cabinet yesterday approved the Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Bill 2016.

As is known, each year over 500,000 road accidents are reported in India in which over 150,000 lose their lives and another 600,000 are injured. The government of India says it is committed to reduce accidents and fatalities by 50 percent in five years.

To address the issue of road safety, a draft Road Transport & Safety Bill was prepared soon after the NDA government came to power but considerable lobbying by vested interests saw most of the states expressing reservations.

To address the issue of road safety dealing with transport departments, the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) constituted a Group of Transport ministers (GoM) of the states, headed by Yoonus Khan, transport minister of Rajasthan. The GoM held three meetings which saw a total of 18 transport ministers from different political parties participate in the same, submitting three interim reports.

Earlier in June this year, 17 MPs across party lines had written to the Prime Minister urging for strong road safety legislation.

In the present Motor Vehicle Act, there are 223 Sections out of which the Bill aims to amend 68 sections whereas Chapters 10 has been deleted and Chapter 11 is being replaced with new provisions to simplify third party insurance claims and settlement process.

Important provisions include an increase in compensation for hit-and-run cases from Rs 25,000 to Rs 200,000 It also has provision for payment of compensation up to Rs 10 lakh in road accident fatalities.  

The Bill also proposes insertion of 28 new sections. The amendments mainly focus on issues relating to improving road safety, citizens’ facilitation while dealing with the Transport Department, strengthening rural transport, last-mile connectivity and public transport, automation and computerisation and enabling online services. 

The Bill proposes to improve the transport scenario in the country by permitting the States to grant exemptions in Stage carriage and contract carriage permits for promoting rural transport, public transport, last mile connectivity and for passenger convenience and road safety. 

The Bill also proposes that the State Government can specify a multiplier, not less than one and not greater than 10, to be applied to each fine under this Act and such modified fine.

Improving delivery of services to the stakeholders using e-governance is one of the major focuses of this Bill.  This includes enabling online learning licenses, increasing validity period for driving licenses,  doing away with the requirements of educational qualifications  for transport licenses are some of the features.

Hefty penalties for traffic offenders

The Road Safety Bill aims to crack the whip on those violating traffic rules. For instance, the parents/guardian / vehicle owner will be deemed to be guilty if a minor is caught driving and is involved in an accident. The punitive measure is a fine of Rs 25,000 with a 3-year imprisonment term and the vehicle registration will be cancelled.

The stiffer penalties, which stands hiked from two-fold to 10-fold, cover a number of typical offences committed in India and which are the cause of road accidents.

For driving without a licence, the existing penalty of Rs 500 will be increased to Rs 5,000, for drunken driving (which is a leading cause of accidents and fatalities), the fine will be hiked from Rs 2,000 to Rs 10,000), or for overspeeding (from Rs 400 to Rs 1,000 for an LMV and Rs 2,000 for a passenger vehicle). For the full list of proposed penalties, see detailed table below.

Stricter provisions are being proposed in respect of offences like juvenile driving, drunken driving, driving without a licence, dangerous driving, overspeeding and overloading as also for not wearing helmets and seatbelts.  To help road accident victims, Good Samaritan guidelines have been incorporated in the Bill. 

The Bill also proposes to mandate the automated fitness testing for transport vehicles with effect from October 1, 2018.  This would help reduce corruption in the Transport Department while improving the roadworthiness of vehicles. Penalties are also proposed for deliberate violation of safety/environmental regulations as well as body builders and spare parts suppliers.

Further, to enable commonality of the registration and licensing process across the country, the Bill proposes to create a National Register for Driving Licence and National Register for Vehicle registration through the ‘Vahan’ and ‘Sarathi’ platforms. This will facilitate uniformity of the process across the country. 

The process for testing and certification for automobiles is proposed to be regulated more effectively. Testing agencies (like ARAI) issuing automobile approvals have been brought under the ambit of the Act.

Commenting on the proposed Road Safety Bill, Transport Minister  Nitin Gadkari has termed the Motor Vehicle (Amendment) 2016 passed by the Cabinet as the biggest reform in the road safety and transport sector.

Recommended:

- Two-wheelers and commercial vehicles see highest road accident fatalities

- Nitin Gadkari urges citizens to follow traffic rules, contribute towards road safety