Stiff penalties okay if roads become safer

The move to put traffic offenders squarely on the mat, and hit them hard in the purse, comes not a moment too soon. Indians are rated among the world’s worst road users, whether as impatient motorists ignoring traffic lights, two-wheeler riders being reckless unmindful of their own and others’ safety, desperate pedestrians getting in the way of vehicles and three-wheeler drivers trying to hog most of the road for themselves. Heavy vehicles just add to the chaos with their insouciance and bullying methods.

A nation with around 120 million vehicles on the roads, that is set to grow to 450 million by 2020, loses around 135,000 people a year in accidents, causing an estimated loss of '1,20,000 crore. But there is little accurate data on the number of those injured on the roads, who are forced to live with some form of disability after a painful recovery. The accident rate is highly disproportionate given the country’s relatively low vehicle density.

Years of keeping faith in awareness programmes have fetched few results, with traffic offenders growing fast as manufacturers add around 20 million vehicles on the roads each year. Police corruption at the ground level is sky high, as monitoring of minor traffic offences yields a good amount in bribes, while some “official” fines go to meet targets set by the department.

To move monitoring to automated processes via speed cameras may cost the state a lot initially, but the returns from fines on offenders on the stiff new scales could justify such expenditure. It would also free police personnel to focus on monitoring free traffic movement rather than concentrate only on catching offenders, who are beating the lights or endangering the lives of pedestrians, particularly children, or ignoring their own safety by not wearing helmets or seat belts.

No one will object if a part collected goes to the Motor Accident Fund, to provide compulsory insurance covering all road users. Ideally, some amount should also go into laying world-class roads: only then will India have a chance to establish a measure of control over what is becoming a problem of chaotic movement of the world’s second-most populous nation.

The government’s resolve to tackle the problem of drunk driving is clear in the huge penalties being envisaged. Unless this social problem is tackled in right earnest, drunk driving will turn out to be the biggest bugbear of Indian roads in the near future. As cities grapple with this key issue, the arming of the police with huge powers is a welcome development. It is time the government swings into action and enacts the changes in the laws to make the country’s roads a far safer place than they are now.