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While giving a lecture during a seminar organized recently by the International Road Federation (IRF) in Delhi, the head of the Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE) said that the Traffic Police in the National Capital Region (NCR) is focusing on fining offenders for not carrying documents like driving licenses and pollution control certificates but Don’t do much to reduce “mobility infractions,” such as speeding and reckless driving.
“What the Traffic Police are implementing today is an easy approach rather than regulating traffic and checking moving traffic offences,” said IRTE Chairman Dr Rohit Baloja.
According to Balogha, in 2017 the Supreme Court appointed a road safety commission and directed police departments across India to classify offenses like speeding, red light jumping, mobile phone use and wrongful driving under the category of dangerous driving and to increase fines. Taking Supreme Court orders into consideration, Delhi Traffic Police collected ₹64.8 crore in traffic fines that year. The number of deaths due to road accidents in 2017 was 1,584. In 2021, the traffic police collected fines of Rs. 493 crore but the number of road accidents fell to 1,230.
The decrease in fatal road accidents is due to the lockdown during the pandemic. Thus, blasting the myth that higher fines will help reduce fatal road accidents,” Baloga said. He added that the definition of violations and their penalties in the amended Motor Vehicle Law opened the floodgates to confusion, corruption and public harassment. Every driver or passenger has become an ATM for enforcement agencies.” .
Amended Section 184 of the Motor Vehicles Act re-defines dangerous driving as “a manner of driving that causes a sense of alarm or distress to vehicle occupants, other road users and persons close to the roads”. However, it does not specify the cause of said distress.
“Most of the capital’s traffic lights and signs do not comply with standard codes of practice. This will result in most drivers being caught unaware of the violations,” Baluja said.
Speaking at the symposium, KK Kapila, Honorary President of IRF, said: “In India, drivers take road signs for granted. But in most places in Delhi, (road signs) remain hidden, fail, miss or just plain wrong.” Road Engineering Measures Simple measures, such as the provision of appropriate road markings and traffic lights, and minor layout changes at road junctions, are proven measures that significantly reduce road accidents.”
Notably, India is responsible for more than 11 percent of the total global road accidents. It is a signatory to the United Nations declaration on halving the number of road accidents by 2030. However, the Union Ministry of Land Transport and Highways aims to reach the target by 2025.
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