India Can Avoid Tag Of Being The Accident Capital Of The World: Supreme Court
The year 2014 alone witnessed 2.37 lakh road accidents on national and state highways across the country which had left at least 85,462 people dead and 2.59 lakh injured.
New Delhi: The year 2014 alone witnessed 2.37 lakh road accidents on national and state highways across the country which had left at least 85,462 people dead and 2.59 lakh injured.
Also Read: Over 1.3 Million Road Accident Deaths In A Decade: India’s Killer Roads
These were the sensational findings in official statistics placed before the Supreme Court, which noted that as per 2009 data, India had reported the highest number of road accident fatalities in the world which clearly indicated that a road accident occurred every four minutes.
India can avoid the tag of being the “accident capital of the world“, was how the apex court reacted on scanning the figures of vehicular deaths over the past several years while stressing on the need for “proper enforcement” of law preventing drunken driving.
The apex court said proper enforcement of law was needed for a nation like India, which is on the cusp of economic development, to protect precious human lives from road mishaps specially due to drunken driving.
The remarks were made by the top court in its December 15 judgement by which it ordered a ban on all liquor shops on national and state highways across the country while making it clear that licenses of the existing shops will not be renewed after March 31 next year.
Also Read: Bihar To Form World’s Longest Human Chain In Support Of Liquor Ban
“Human life is precious. As the road network expands in India, road infrastructure being an integral part of economic development, accidents profoundly impact on the life of common citizen. For a nation on the cusp of economic development, India can well avoid the tag of being the accident capital of the world,” a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur said.
Also Read: With Rising Number Of Road Deaths, Why India Needs To Fight Drink Driving
The bench, also comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao, took note of the statistics placed before it by the government agencies, according to which total number of persons killed in road accidents on the national highways was 48,768 in 2012 which shot up to 51,204 in 2015.
In 2014, there were 1.24 lakh accident cases resulting in 46,110 deaths and 1.35 lakh persons injured in mishaps on the national highways while on state highways, the figure was 1.13 lakh accidents in which 1.24 lakh people were injured and 39,352 had been killed.
Also Read: Saving Lives On Our Roads: Why India Needs To Protect Its Good Samaritans
“The expressways witnessed 4,208 accident cases, 4,229 injured and 1,802 deaths. Figures are also available of the distribution of road accidents by causes during 2014. 1.38 lakh persons were injured in road accidents involving dangerous or careless driving and 42,127 deaths occurred. Injuries caused in accidents due to over-speeding stood at 1.81 lakh while there were 48,654 deaths. 7,307 accident cases involving driving under the influence of drugs/alcohol were registered resulting in 7,398 injuries and 2,591 deaths,” the bench noted in its order.
so let’s expedite the litigation process in hit and run cases (rather in ever case) – create credible punitive deterrence for rash driving.
If I kill 20 people simply by driving rash and leading the bus to an accident, I don’t mind it because my drivers license will be cancelled by the RTO for 6 months or I might put behind bars for 6 months. Now if they suspend my license or dirvers badge, I will still be earning good by becoming a door checker ir n another bus.
Similarly when vehicles in the front don’t move fast or if there is no side to be given, the private buses comes too close to create an accident and some times if the car driver haven’t allowed him to overtake, he will just ram into you back. Now when the police comes, the bus is a public transport and he will be asked to report at the station after he completes his trip, while the car owner if he no injuries has to wait for the bus to arrive at the police station. Now comes the issue, when a bus rams a car , the bus won’t have much damage but the car will have damage. So the bus plies on the road next day itself, while the car will have to undergo repairs and it might take a week for it to be repaired. So the problem is that the car owner has monetary lose is (no insurance company will give you 100% of the cost incurred for repair)
So the best rule the government can come up is to suspend the permit of the bus / lorry till the car is repaired and suspend the license of the driver for same period. But if an accident with loss of life is there, suspend the permit of bus for 3 months, suspend license of driver for 2 years and make sure insurance amount is paid at the earliest.
Everyday I experience almost 10 cases where there are slightly missed from major accidents. I don’t think many people around 80 % wants to drive rash or purposefully following wrong driving rules, These guys are forced slowly due to the bad road conditions and extremely poorly planned road design, also digging of the same road after 3-4 months. The contractors who are doing road works are not cleaning the garbage…. Traffic cops are just working on clearing the traffic other than catching the people who are not following the rules (No Lane rules… no lanes in most of the roads.. in one way vehicle comes from wrong direction…) These needs to stopped. We Indians are fast learners and will do right thing for initial days and if things are not r8 then we know that the system will not change in near future at least 10 years.. so… people change. There are strict rules some places like inside office or else where.. I was surprised to see drivers follow all rules because they know that there will be no trouble.
Its really sad to see people injured because of others mistake.. including system…