Government to make rear view sensors mandatory in all cars

The government is expected to issue a notification to make rear view sensors mandatory in all passenger cars to reduce the risk of children and pedestrians from reversing motor vehicles, a senior official said.

The information was disclosed by Abhay Damle, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), on Thursday at the curtain raiser event of World Roads Meet, 2017 (WRM 2017) being organised by International Road Federation (IRF).

"Although most cars come equipped with rear view mirrors which are adequate for detecting vehicles behind a car, they are inadequate on for detecting small children or objects close to the ground, which fall in the car's blind spot. The MoRTH will soon issue a notification to make rear view sensors mandatory in all cars," Damle said.

The Joint Secretary further said that the ministry plans to make speed audio warning system mandatory in vehicles.

"As more than 50,000 fatal accidents in the country take place due to overspeeding, the road ministry is also planning to make speed warning and beep audio warning mandatory in vehicles on similar lines of seat belt wearing sign," Damle said.

"At a speed of 80 small beep sound, a warning will come and after the speed of 90, a continuous beep will alarm the speeding driver," Damle added.

Damle stated that the government has already made it compulsory for all two-wheelers, accounting for highest share of accidents in the country, to either have the anti-lock braking system (ABS) or the combined braking system (CBS) by April 2019.

"Apart from rear view sensors and speed warning, air bags will also become mandatory in all vehicles soon," the Joint Secretary said.

"From October 1, 2018 all vehicles will have to go in for automated inspection and fitness certification test with hardly any human intervention, similarly Driving Licence test will also become automated by that time. This will help in reducing fatal road accidents," he added.

For the first time, India will host the International Road Federation's four day World Road Meeting (WRM 2017) from November 14-17, 2017 with the theme "Safe Roads and Smart Mobility".

About 3,000 road safety, infrastructure and transport experts from across the globe are expected to take part in the WRM 2017.

--IANS

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