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Road Safety
In a significant order, the Supreme Court on Monday directed 23 states and seven union territories to file compliance reports indicating implementation of the Motor Vehicle law's recent provisions besides rules on electronic monitoring and road safety measures. A bench comprising Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan noted six states and a UT, namely, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Delhi, had filed their compliance reports. The top court on September 2, 2024 passed directions on the implementation of Section 136A of the Motor Vehicles Act read with Rule 167A of the Motor Vehicles Rules which allow authorities to electronically monitor speeding vehicles. The bench has now asked the remaining 23 states and seven UTs to file their compliance reports which will be shared with the Supreme Court committee on road safety. The apex court panel, in turn, would look into all aspects and provide its inputs which could be considered by the Centre in framing the ...
Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said faulty road construction should be made a non-bailable offence and road contractors and engineers should be held responsible for accidents and sent to prison. Addressing an event organised by industry body CII, Gadkari further said India is number one in road accidents in the world. "Faulty road construction should be a non-bailable offence and road contractors, concessionaires and engineers should be held responsible for accidents and sent to prison," he said. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways aims to reduce road accident fatalities to half by 2030. According to the minister, the ministry data of road accidents in 2023 shows five lakh mishaps in the country resulting in 1,72,000 deaths. "Of this, 66.4 per cent, or 1,14,000, were in the 18-45 years age bracket while 10,000 deaths were of children," Gadkari said. He pointed out that 55,000 deaths were reported due to absence of helmets and 30,000 w
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has asked the state transport department officials to increase the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in order to minimise road accidents. Fadnavis also directed them to enforce policies for scrapping all vehicles above 15 years of age, a release issued by the Chief Minister's Office on Monday said. The Maharashtra government has signed an agreement with Google, it said, adding the CM asked the transport department to increase the use of AI to strengthen the sector's security and sustainability, using the agreement. The CM reviewed the next 100-day action plans for the transport, ports and the state airport authority departments in a meeting at the Sahyadri guest house. He emphasised the need for scrapping all vehicles older than 15 years, both public and private. As per the release, more than 13,000 outdated government vehicles will be scrapped, and the state transport corporation's buses older than 15 years will be replaced or ...
Starting in September of 2027, all new passenger vehicles in the U.S. will have to sound a warning if rear-seat passengers don't buckle up. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Monday that it finalised the rule, which also requires enhanced warnings when front seat belts aren't fastened. The agency estimates that the new rule will save 50 lives per year and prevent 500 injuries when fully in effect, according to a statement. The new rule will apply to passenger cars, trucks, buses except for school buses, and multipurpose vehicles weighing up to 10,000 pounds. Before the rule, seat belt warnings were required only for the driver's seat. Under the new rule, outboard front-seat passengers also must get a warning if they don't fasten their belts. Front-centre seats will not get a warning because NHTSA found that it wouldn't be cost effective. The agency said most vehicles already have warnings for the outboard passenger seats. The rule also lengthens the duration o
Regional Transport Office (RTO) officials on Tuesday said they suspect that a "human error" and "lack of proper training" led to the horrific accident in Mumbai's Kurla, where a BEST bus fatally knocked down seven persons and injured 42 others. Soon after the incident occurred on Monday night, an investigation team of the Wadala RTO found that the brakes of the electric bus of Olectra-make were operating well. The e-bus operated by the civic-run Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking rammed into pedestrians and vehicles at around 9.30 pm on Monday on the S G Barve Marg in Kurla (West). Sanjay More (54), who was at the wheel of the ill-fated bus, was later arrested. A team of the Wadala RTO reached the spot a couple of hours after the incident. The RTO team led by motor vehicle inspector Bharat Jadhav completed the inspection of the bus at the BEST's Kurla depot this morning. BEST administration, with the help of Mumbai police, shifted the bus from the acciden
The government is set to implement new regulations requiring mandatory verification and stamping of traffic radar equipment, aimed at improving road safety and enforcement accuracy across the country. The Legal Metrology Division of the Consumer Affairs Ministry has finalised the draft rules following extensive consultations with stakeholders, including the Indian Institute of Legal Metrology, Regional Reference Laboratories, manufacturers, and vehicle certification organizations. "The suggestions received during various consultations are examined carefully and the rules will be notified shortly," the ministry said in a statement. The new rules, which fall under the Legal Metrology (General) Rules, 2011, will apply for "microwave Doppler radar equipment" widely utilised for measuring vehicle speeds on roads. The new framework requires all speed measurement devices to undergo verification and receive official stamps before deployment. This process aims to guarantee precise readings
The Centre has ordered district officials to crack down on manufacturers and sellers of non-ISI certified helmets, following concerns over road safety and substandard protective gear flooding the market. The government has cancelled or allowed to expire 162 helmet manufacturing licences to date, while authorities have conducted 27 raids targeting violations of Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) regulations, the consumer affairs ministry said on Saturday. "Helmets save lives, but only if they are of good quality," Consumer Affairs Secretary Nidhi Khare said. "This initiative is crucial in removing unsafe helmets from the market." The crackdown comes after the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways implemented a Quality Control Order in June 2021, making BIS certification mandatory for all helmets under standard IS 4151:2015. The officials have particularly targeted roadside vendors selling uncertified helmets, which have been linked to motorcycle accident fatalities. Consumers can ..
More people have lost their lives in India in road accidents than wars, militancy and Naxalism, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Wednesday. Addressing the sixth Edition of FICCI Road Safety Awards and Conclave 2024, Gadkari further said the number of blackspots is increasing because of bad detailed project reports (DPRs) of road projects. "More people have lost lives in road crashes than wars, militancy and Naxalism," he said. According to Gadkari, India accounts for 5 lakh accidents and 1.5 lakh deaths annually, while 3 lakh people are injured. "This caused a 3 per cent loss to the country's GDP. Like a sacrificial lamb, a driver is blamed for every accident. Let me tell you, and I observe minutely -- often, the road engineering is at fault," he said. The minister emphasised on the need to conduct safety audit of all highways. He also noted that to reduce number of accidents, "we need to follow lane discipline". Gadkari added that the Ministry of
The United Nations on Monday launched its global road safety campaign in the United States, which aims to halve the number of road-related victims worldwide by 2030. The two-year advertising campaign seeks to educate people on basic, but life-saving, safety measures, such as wearing seatbelts and helmets and putting away phones on the road, UN Special Envoy for Road Safety Jean Todt told a news conference opening the US campaign. The advertisements will appear on JCDecaux billboards in more than 80 countries and 1,000 cities, including New York City, Chicago, and Boston starting Monday, said Jean-Luc Decaux, president and co-CEO of JCDecaux North America. He said the campaign underscores how the media's reach can raise awareness to save lives and further the message of international road safety. The #MakeASafetyStatement campaign is part of the UN New Decade of Action for Road Safety, which launched in 2021. More than one million people die in road-related fatalities annually, over
Three women, reportedly from India, were killed in a deadly crash in the US state of South Carolina when their overspeeding car veered out of control before jumping at least 20 feet in the air and crashing into trees, media reports said. The accident occurred on Friday at noon on the Staunton Bridge Road along Interstate 85 near Lakeside Road, according to the South Carolina Highway Patrol troopers, Fox Carolina reported. The women, who were reportedly Indians, were travelling in the SUV speeding in the northbound lanes of Interstate 85, Chief Deputy Coroner Mike Ellis from the Greenville County Coroner's Office said. He said the vehicle left the roadway on the right-hand shoulder, ran up the embankment, went through the cement bridge embankment, and jumped completely over all four lanes of traffic. It then went through some trees on the other side of the roadway and down an embankment, Ellis added. When the vehicle jumped all four lanes of traffic, it actually struck trees probab