On June 2, at 5:30 in the morning, 86-year-old Jasmeet Singh (name changed) was cycling to a gurdwara, just 2 km away from his home in Ghaziabad. On the way, a bus on high speed rammed him from behind. He was thrown off his cycle, hitting his head on the road. He was rushed to the hospital where he struggled for his life for 11 days. He passed away due to internal bleeding. According to bystanders, the bus was speeding, and the driver absconded.
There have been numerous such instances of accidents in Delhi in the past. According to Delhi Traffic Police data, in 2018 alone, 1,690 people were killed in road accidents, which means a person lost his life in a road accident every six hours. The Delhi Police data also shows that people who violate traffic norms cause almost 50% of these accidents.
One reason for such carelessness on the road was the minimal fine imposed on such offences under the Motor Vehicles Act. The fines ranged from as low as Rs 100 to Rs 1,000. For instance, an offence as grave as speeding, which contributes to 35% of the total number of accidents in Delhi, would only set the driver back by Rs 500.
In spite of such low fines, Delhi Police collected Rs 106 crore worth of traffic fines last year from 11.5 lakh challans issued, a number which has increased by Rs 43 crore in the last three years. It is therefore not hard to imagine the amount of nuisance that traffic violations cause in the city.
But now, offenders have a reason to worry. The Centre on September 1 passed a resolution for the amendment of the Motor Vehicles Act, wherein all offenders guilty of committing any sort of traffic offence will be charged hefty fines, sometimes even 10 times the previous fine.
For example, the offender not wearing a seat belt or helmet, who would earlier pay a Rs 100 fine, will now be charged Rs 1,000. Incidentally, over 6 lakh drivers were challaned for not wearing a seat belt last year, the most for any traffic offence in Delhi.
A driver who is not carrying documents like license, RC, insurance and Pollution Under Control certificate, will now have to pay Rs 5,000 for every document that he does not possess.
Previously, the Act had no separate provision for traffic offences by juveniles — which accounted for 1,228 cases last year in Delhi. Now, the guardian has to pay Rs 25,000 and can even face a jail term up to three years.
The Union Road and Transport Minister, Nitin Gadkari, said the amendment on the Motor Vehicles Act was done in ‘public interest’ to prevent deaths by road accidents that have been on the rise in India. “It is to make people aware and create respect for the law”, he added.
Jasmeet Singh’s granddaughter is pleased with the amended Motor Vehicles Act. “As a person who lost a family member because of rash driving on the road, I think this was a much-needed move to prevent further accidents from taking place,” she says.
But has this had any impact on the Delhi, ever since its implementation on September 1?
Traffic constable Harish Kumar (name changed), posted at one of the traffic signals near Red Fort — a traffic violation hotspot in the city — feels that strict implementation has made a huge difference.
“Earlier, I would see many bikers on the roads without helmets. I challaned a lot of them, but obviously, few escaped”, he quips. Pointing to the road, he adds, “How many do you see now? Absolutely none”. He also says people have stopped driving through red lights, and he was fined a lot less drivers than he used to do.
His testimony is substantiated by Delhi Police data. An average of 4,813 challans have been issued per day since September 1. Till last month, the number of challans they issued per day was a whopping 16,788. This means that the number of challans issued per day has gone down by more than 71%.
However, the general public does not seem to be too happy with the change in the Motor Vehicles Act. Just a few days ago, a biker set his vehicle on fire when he was challaned Rs 23,000 for multiple offences, including drunk driving. A girl threatened to commit suicide in front of the traffic constable, if he imposed any fine for non-possession of documents. Scared, the police let her go without any fines.
In Delhi, 41 transport organizations headed by the United Motor Vehicles Front (UFTA), called for a one-day strike on September 19 to protest the high rate of fines being imposed. Calling the fines as a source of corruption by the traffic police, the UFTA, in a statement, said that if the Central or state government does not come up with a solution in two to three days, they will go on an indefinite strike.
States like Gujarat and West Bengal have also opposed the amendment and reduced the amount of the fines originally mentioned in the Act.
But Delhi’s Chief Minister has welcomed the decision. At a press conference, Arvind Kejriwal said he is happy with the Motor Vehicles Act being implemented on the roads of the Capital. Saying that Delhi’s traffic situation is ‘notorious’, he added that the fear of paying hefty challans will reduce the risk of road accidents because people will obey the law.
He also cited examples of how there have been huge queues in front of pollution certificate issuing centres, for fear of hefty challans. “However if there are any discrepancies in the Act, where unjust fines are being challaned, we will take note of that,” he added.
Now that the Chief Minister is also speaking in favour of a decision by a government he vehemently opposes at every step, then the citizens of Delhi too will need to follow suit and mend their ways.
Poor infrastructure
Agreeing with intention of the Amended MVA and keeping in view the number of accidents that take place in the Capital, Subhas Chand, Principal Scientist from the Traffic and Engineering Safety Department of Central Road Research Institute says it is definitely not a one-day job.
This brings us to the inevitable question – is the road infrastructure of Delhi conducive for the proper implementation of the MVA? The answer is not quite positive.
“There is yet to be a road safety audit in Delhi. It helps identify the glitches and the lack of infrastructure in the city. There is an obvious lack of proper infrastructure and people should also be trained to understand the regulations. Now, it seems the objective is to just find faults rather than minimising violations. There is always a trade-off between the two,” says Chand.
Chand points to the state of zebra crossings and intersections in the city. “Most of the zebra crossings are faulty and lead you to no destination. The intersections are not designed properly. The stop line is put much ahead, so it prevents the optimal use of the intersection space for the queue length. We have to enhance and make use of the available infrastructure in an optimal manner.”
According to a nationwide survey conducted by the Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE), the signs, signals and markings in most cities fall short of desired standards. As per the survey, a majority of traffic signals in Delhi do not correspond to the defined IRC code of practice and the UN Convention of Road Signs and Signals, 1968 to which India is a signatory. In Delhi alone, more than 90% of these signages are either incorrect in shape and colour or are wrongly installed.
Patriot too found all the traffic signals dysfunctional at a four-point crossing in Mayur Vihar Phase 1, near the Metro station, on September 13.
Adding to this, Chand also talks about the issue with the system of fixed time traffic signals that is prevalent across the city. He suggests signal phasing should be coordinated in real-time, wherein it gets updated based on the queue length. “Stuck in a crossing, if you see there is no traffic on the other side, you tend to violate the rules despite the red light.”
Another aspect that should be taken into account is the upper speed limit. For instance, if one travels from Noida to Mayur Vihar, the speed limit in the first flyover is 60 km per hour, whereas it is 50 km hour in the second flyover, and again on the road towards Pragati Maidan. The speed limit on the Delhi-Meerut expressway which falls on the same route, is 65 km per hour.
“How can you adjust 65 km in your speedometer, there might be chances of getting into an accident trying to adjust your speed. It should either be 60 or 40. But you also have to identify some of the areas where you can have the speed limit of 80 km because you need to have a balance between mobility and accessibility”, says Chand.
According to the report by IRTE, the effort to improve road safety is directed towards implementation of a legislation without recognizing that:
- Road and traffic engineering to a great extent is not conducive to the rightful requirements of driving.
- Drivers are not aware of the codes of practice of traffic control devices or the driving regulations.
- Police have not received basic training to understand the elements of traffic violations.
- Enforcement in such conditions will become handicapped unless overall corrective measures are undertaken.
Chand advises to start off with creating sidewalks followed by clearing all the service roads from commercial activities, then making all the intersections in real-time. “If you want to copy Japan, you need to have the infrastructure to back it,” Chand concludes with a smile.
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