Safe driving law

 Indiscipline in roads is one of the major causes of deaths throughout the world where nearly 12,50,000 people die each year, on average 3,287 deaths a day. An additional 2 to 5 crore are injured or disabled. More than half of all road traffic deaths occur among young adults ages 15-44. The statistics for India also reveal that after increase in road lengths by 39% since 2000 the number of road accidents has jumped by 158%. In India, more than 150,000 people are killed each year in traffic accidents. That’s about 400 fatalities a day and far higher than developed auto markets like the US, which in 2016 logged about 40,000. Of roads in India, national highways comprise of 2% but witnessed 28% of the total road accidents in the country. In most road accidents, drunken or negligent driving was responsible for 78% of accidents while negligence by road and civic bodies was responsible for 3% of accidents. Across states, Goa had the maximum share in total road accidents/ lakh population in 2015 for the fourth year in a row (222 accidents/ lakh persons). This was followed by Kerala (110 accidents/ lakh persons), and Tamil Nadu (100 accidents/ lakh persons).In terms of accident fatalities, Tamil Nadu had the highest share in 2015 (23 fatalities/ lakh persons) followed by Haryana (18 fatalities/ lakh persons), and Karnataka (18 fatalities/ lakh persons). In Nagaland since 2016-18 around 1,432 road accidents occurred in Nagaland resulting in 122 deaths and causing injury to 956 people. The fact that deaths on Indian roads being the highest in the world should be a cause for deep concern and consequent action. Road accidents in India are primarily due to indiscipline(traffic violation) or bad behaviour or driving under influence of alcohol or drugs among drivers. In order to prevent road mishaps, the government has tightened the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2019 which gives power to the Centre to make rules for the authority that issues licences. A national register of driving licence will be created that will comprise licence data from throughout the country to make transfer of vehicles across states easier and weed out fake Driving Licences.It has taken the country decades of indiscipline on roads, violating traffic rules and escaping any accountability for poor engineering to gain the shameful reputation of being the world leader in road accidents. If bringing a law results in even an incremental change in the notorious defiance, nothing like it, but the compulsive jugaad mindset (circumvent the law) to dodge the system and make it corruptible calls for a supplementary step: projecting road safety as a national mission, much like Swachh Bharat. Also, if a child commits a driving offence, the parents will be fined Rs.25,000 and face arrest. The minimum penalty for violation of traffic rules and regulations will now be Rs 500 and Rs 10,000 is the standard fine for a whole set of offences.Even automobile manufacturers will be compelled to recall motor vehicles in case of a defect that causes damage to the environment. The law relies heavily on fines and punishments and appears draconian. Henceforth, those behind the driving wheels will no longer be able to drive like hell and if they did, they will end up behind bars with stiff fines. Hopefully, the law should lead to safer roads and save lives.