Road Safety Initiative

Report on Analysis of status of Road Safety Laws and Policies related to key risk factors

Consumer VOICE, dedicated to road safety issues, recently concluded a research on national-level and 2 state level laws and policies concerning safety risk factors. High casualties states of UP & MP were covered. The aim was to pinpoint any deficiencies in MVAA 19 and matching state policies, enabling us to formulate recommendations for policymakers. These recommendations will address the identified gaps and propose additional measures for more effective implementation of MVAA19.

Furthermore, there exist state-level rules, regulations, policies, schemes, and best practices associated with these risk factors. Therefore, in their target states, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, an analysis of these laws and policies was essential. Specifically, this analysis encompasses the examination of state motor vehicle rules, state road safety policies, and action plans related to the specified risk factors. Besides this, Amendment of MVAA 19 is also being proposed for advocacy.

Read the full report here

Consumer VOICE observes 7th UN Road Safety Week

NATIONAL ROAD SAFETY WEBINAR

Nitin Gadkari, the Road Transport, Highways, and MSME Minister said road fatalities can be reduced by 50 per cent by 2025 as against the target of 2030 while addressing a webinar organised by Consumer VOICE along with the other partners of the Road Safety Network. The webinar was organised on September 1, 2020 to mark the completion of one year of Motor Vehicles Amendment Act 2019. Read More

ROAD TO MOTOR VEHICLES AMENDMENT ACT 2019

According to the road transport and highways ministry, half a million accidents are reported in India every year, in which 150,000 people lose their lives.
A long awaited Motor Vehicles Amendment Act 2019 that introduces several amendments in the 30-year-old law has been passed by the Lok Sabha on 23rd July 2019 and Rajya Sabha on 31st July 2019. President Ram Nath Kovind on 9th Aug 2019 gave assent to the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019, that aims to make Indian roads safer, reduce corruption and use technology to overhaul the country’s transportation system.

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 computerization and enabling online services. The Bill was introduced in Parliament by the road transport and highway ministry in 2016, after which it was passed by the Lok Sabha in 2017. However, it failed to gather support in the Rajya Sabha.

LIST OF INCREASED PENALTIES UNDER MOTOR VEHICLE AMENDMENT ACT 2019

The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) notified, the provisions of Motor Vehicles Amendment Act, 2019, for enhanced penalties (including Speeding, drink driving, helmet, SB), came into effect from September 1, 2019.

Section(Old Section)		Old Provision/Property	New Proposed Provision/Minimum Penalties
177	General	Rs 100	Rs 500
New 177A	Rules of road regulation violation	Rs 100	Rs 500
178	Travel without ticket	Rs 100	Rs 500
179	Disobedience of orders of authorities	Rs 100	Rs 500
180	Unauthorized use of vehicles without licence	Rs 1,000	Rs 5,000
181	Driving without licence	Rs 500	Rs 5,000
182	Driving despite disqualification	Rs 500	Rs 10,000
182 B	Oversize vehicles	New	New
183	Over speeding	Rs 400	Rs 1,000 for LMV, Rs 2,000 for medium passenger vehicles
184	Dangerous driving penalty	Rs 1,000	Up to Rs 5,000
185	Drunken driving	Rs 2,000	Rs 10,000
189	Speeding/ Racing	Rs 500	Rs 5,000
192 A	Vehicle without permit	Up to Rs 5,000	Up to Rs 10,000
193	Aggregators (violation of licencing conditions)	New	Rs 25,000 to Rs 1 lakh
194	Overloading	Rs 2,000 and Rs 1,000 per extra tonne	Rs 20,000 and Rs 2,000 per extra tonne
194 A	Overloading of passengers		Rs 1,000 per extra passenger
194 B	Seat belt	Rs 100	Rs 1,000
194 C	Overloading of two-wheelers	Rs 100	Rs 2,000, disqualification of licence for three months
194 D	Helmets	Rs 100	Rs 1,000, disqualification of licence for three months
194 E	Not providing way for emergency vehicles	New	Rs 10,000
196	Driving without insurance	Rs 1,000	Rs 2,000
199	Offences by juveniles	New	Guardian/ owner shall be deemed to be guilty. Rs 25,000 fine with 3 years imprisonment. Juvenile to be tried under JJ Act. Registration of motor vehicle to be cancelled.
206	Power of officers to impound documents		Suspension of driving licences u/s 183, 184, 185, 189, 190, 194C, 194D, 194E.
210 B	Offences committed by enforcing authorities		Twice the penalty under the relevant section.

SIX MAIN RISK FACTORS OF ROAD SAFETY

Seat Belt

Seat belts dramatically reduce risk of death and serious injury. Among drivers and front-seat passengers, seat belts reduce the risk of death by 45%, and cut the risk of serious injury by 50%. People not wearing a seat belt are 30 times more likely to be ejected from a vehicle during a crash. More than 3 out of 4 people who are ejected during a fatal crash die from their injuries.

Front or Back -Always Wear Your Seat Belt

Speed

The speed of motor vehicles is at the core of the road traffic injury problem. Speed influences both crash risk and crash consequence. The physical layout of the road and its surroundings can both encourage and discourage speed. Crash risk increases as speed increases, especially at road junctions and while overtaking – as road users underestimate the speed and overestimate the distance of an approaching vehicle.

Helmet

The main risk factor for motorized two-wheeler users is the non-use of crash helmets. The lack or inappropriate use of helmets increase the risk of fatalities and injuries resulting from road crashes involving motorized twowheelers. Head injuries are a major cause of death, injury and disability among users of motorized twowheel vehicles. Many of these head injuries could have been prevented or their severity reduced through the use of simple and inexpensive helmets. Read More

Drink & Drive

Impairment by alcohol is an important factor influencing both the risk of a road crash as well as the severity of the injuries that result from crashes.

Child Restraints

A child safety seat is a seat designed specifically to protect children from injury or death during vehicle collisions. Child restraints work in the same way as adult seat-belts.

Mobile distractive driving

Using mobile phones can cause drivers to take their eyes off the road, their hands off the steering wheel, and their minds off the road and the surrounding situation. This cognitive distraction have the biggest impact on driving behaviour.

IMPACT

We submitted a petition on December 2015 to the Honorable Minister Shri Nitin Gadkari and State Minister for an immediate introduction of Road Safety Bill in monsoon session at central level.
At state level our partners have submitted petition to Transport Ministers of the respective states and copies have been sent to Shri Nitin Gadkari.
We have received support from 58 Members of Parliament across all parties.
Workshops and Candle Marches were held on World Day of Remembrance (WDR) for Road Safety across major states and cities in India like Chandigarh, Lucknow, Cuttack, Bhopal and Patna which were a huge success.

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Some of the important activities that formed part of our campaign were:

Consumer VOICE organized Cyclothon (Cycle Rally) event on January 7, 2017 on the occasion of Road Safety Week at Nehru Park, Neeti Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi. The theme of the Cyclothon was ‘Child Safety
and Safer Roads – Every Life Counts’.
The VOICE team also approached relevant ministries (Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and Ministry (MORTH) and Ministry of Consumer Affairs to push for the bill.
World Day of Remembrance (WDR) was organised in 2015, 2016 and 2017 from 15th till 20th November in 10 states
A National workshop was held on February 2015 to brief our state partners to garner support from MPs across states.

World Day of Remembrance 2022

On the third Sunday of November each year, the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims (WDR) is observed. In order to honour the suffering of all impacted victims, families, and communities, it is important to recall the many millions who have been killed or gravely injured on the world’s roadways. Read More

World Day of Remembrance 2021

World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims was observed on 21st November by Consumer VOICE along with its state partners in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. Workshops, sensitization drives and peace walks were some of the activities that marked the occasion.

All WDR Activities