Every year around 1.5 lakh Indians die in accidents. Every four minutes, one Indian is killed on the roads, every day 16 children die in accidents. A man hit by a tempo bled on a Delhi road for 90 minutes on 11 Aug 2016 morning. Hundreds of people drove past the dying man, but not one person came forward to help. Accidents like these keep happening, but the question that remains unanswered is how can we avoid them? What can be done to increase road safety in India? Government has come up with Motor Vehicle Amendment Bill of 2016. Will it improve road safety in India?
Road Safety in India
Road Safety in India is a major issue and reports state that over 5 lakh road accidents happen every year, which results in more than 1.5 lakh individuals losing their lives. Here is a report released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in Jun 2016 (Ref Hindu) road rash in India is as follows
Number of road accidents in India
According to analysis of the report by Save Life Foundation, an NGO that works towards improving road safety in India, a two-wheeler rider is the most vulnerable to fatalities on the road. Peculiarly, the age-group most frequently affected is between 15 and 44, while males constituted nearly 82 percent of the fatalities in 2015.
Motor Vehicle Amendment Bill 2016
The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister has given its approval for Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Bill 2016. The amendment aims to reduce the accidents and fatalities by 50 per cent in five years. The Government plans on doing so by imposing hefty penalties and fines on traffic offenders. Here are the major highlights of the Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Bill 2016.
- The increase in compensation for hit and run cases from Rs 25,000 to Rs two lakh. Compensation of up to Rs 10 lakh in road accident fatalities.
- In the case of offences committed by juveniles, the guardian/owner of the vehicle shall be deemed guilty and the juvenile will be tried under the JJ Act. Registration of motor vehicle will also be cancelled.
- Increase in fine from Rs 100 to Rs 1,000 for riding without wearing a helmet. This might also result in disqualification of the rider’s license for three months.
- Penalty for drunken driving / driving under the influence of alcohol will be raised to Rs 10,000 from Rs 2,000.
- Penalty for driving without wearing a seat belt will be raised from Rs 100 to Rs 1,000.
- There will be a provision to penalise drivers who do not provide way to emergency vehicles.
- Adding online services such as enabling online learning licenses, increasing validity period for driving licenses and fulfilling requirements of educational qualifications for transport licenses.
- The State Government has the right to increase the fine amount. The Amount can be increased, but not more than 10 times of the amount stated as fine under the Act.
- The State Government has the right to regulate traffic and road direction as per the circumstances
- The driving training process will be strengthened which will result in a faster issuance of transport licenses.
Proposed Amendments in various penalties under Motor Vehicle Amendment Bill – 2016 are as follows:
Penalties under Motor-Vehicle Amendment Bill 2016
Why We don’t help the accident victim?
In 2013, a survey by Savelife Foundation — an NGO working on road safety — found that 74 percent of Indians were unlikely to help an accident victim, whether alone or with other bystanders. Much of this apathy is because of the fear of getting drawn into legal cases, being harassed by cops and asked by hospitals to pay the bills. The laws and the system, frankly, are loaded against anybody willing to help.
Buy Motor Insurance
As a user of a car or bike, you can potentially cause physical injury or death of other road users. You are then liable to compensate them or their family members. Not everybody may be in a position to pay, so the Government requires you to have insurance, so that the victim can claim from the insurance company. This type of insurance is called third party insurance and is mandatory by law.
On top of that you can chose to protect your own vehicle from damage. That is called own damage insurance and is optional.
Comprehensive is better (at least in earlier 5- 8 years) as
- Provides benefits to survivors when an accident results in death
- It covers lawsuits, including legal fees brought against you as the result of an accident
- Covers the bills of vehicle repairs due to damage caused in an accident
- Covers damage caused by other than an accident for example, theft, fire, etc.
Anything can happen suddenly. The cost of repairs, denting and painting can be so high that you may have to shell out an amount which could be several times higher than the annual premium you pay for several years.
Imagine if your car worth Rs 5 lakh gets stolen! The cost of premium for insuring this amount is generally Rs 5,000-6,500. Does it make sense to ignore insurance at any stage? Having a protection policy cover always works in the interest of the customer.
Vehicle insurance policy is an annual contract that needs to get renewed every year. At the time of buying or renewing your car insurance or bike insurance policy, you would notice that the policy clearly states the time and date from which the cover is effective and the date and time on which the cover terminates.
So when your policy completes a year, you need to make sure that it is renewed before the expiration date. If you miss the deadline even by a day, your policy will have a break.
This means that instead of renewing your policy, you will need to buy a policy afresh. Thus you may miss out on No-Claim Bonus (NCB) and end up paying higher premium.
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- What is Car Insurance
- Understanding Car : Box,Segment,Specifications
- Understanding Ex Showroom Price and On Road Price of Vehicle
- Cost of owning a Car
- Basics of Insurance
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