There is a saying that the
left hand does not know what the right hand is doing!
How about the right hand
does not know what the right hand is doing?
That would sumup what the
government is doing regarding building roads.
A road is being built from
Delhi to Katra, Jammu, the starting point for the Maa Vishnu Devi Temple.
The new four-lane highway
will cost Rs. 35,000 (Thirty Five Thousand) crore and the speed limit will be
increased to 120 kmph. So Delhi to Katra in seven hours! What is the rush?
Leave an hour early? But take a leisurely drive through the country side and
enjoy the scenery. You may be visiting this part of the country for the first
time.
The National Crime Records
Bureau says in its analysis that 83% of road fatalities on Indian roads was due
to speeding, dangerous or careless driving.
The Road Crash Analysis Cell
says 92% of road accidents were due to ‘Rash Driving’. Rash driving covers a
multitude of since.
Speeding being one of them.
Now we have increased the speed limits. This will not help curb road
fatalities.
The amended Motor Vehicles
Act was aimed at reducing road-fatalities.
No sooner was it law that
half a dozen states announced they would be more lenient and reduce the fines.
What for? These are vote
seeking moves. There is no concern for those killed on the roads; they are at
the lower end of society so it really is not a priority.
Lowering fines and showing
leniency is an open invitation to the already reckless driver and the
namby-pamby Government.
In my opinion the fines were
no deterrent for serial offenders like red light jumping, lane cutting,
overtaking from the left should have hefty fines. For a third offence, a jail
term should be added. Vehicle impounded. Driving license cancelled, not
suspended. That would be a deterrent. You want to reduce fatalities on the road
you will have to have very strict rules and enforce them.
Let us see what is a
deterrent that will bring these reckless, lawless, irresponsible scoundrels to
heel. In Australia, four student friends out on a drive were caught speeding.
Fined Australian dollars 4,000 or rupees 2 lakhs.
Another example a man was
fined for multiple offenses. Fine was Australian dollars 6,000 or Rupees three
lakhs! And license suspended for 60 years!
“Speed Radars on
Ambala-Delhi highway soon.” Was a headline in a local news paper. Why soon? Why
not immediately. Informatively, I have not seen a radar speed trap in the last
2 years.
In the State of New South
Wales, Australia, radar speed- guns brought down road fatalities by 90%!
Sweden has a Road Safety
Board. They are a law unto themselves. They need no Parliament to pass rules.
They thought 17 deaths per
one lakh was very high. These rules and enforcements brought the figure down to
2 deaths per one lakh!
The current rate of
fatalities is 14 deaths a day in Haryana and 12 daily in Punjab.
For the rest of the country
every 2.5 kilometres of National Highway claimed a life in 2018. And we are
building more roads with higher speed limits. More lives will be lost.
Happy Motoring!