Need to introduce road safety bill in parliament, says NGO

Road safety and emergency care organisation SaveLIFE Foundation on Thursday urged the central government to introduce the road safety bill during the upcoming winter session of parliament.

"Top priority of the government must be to introduce road safety bill in the upcoming session of parliament," Piyush Tewari, founder and chief executive of SaveLIFE Foundation, told IANS.

"The comprehensive law must ensure dedicated provision for road safety, unified driver licensing authority and independent national road safety authority."

Parliament's winter session is scheduled to begin from November 26.

Former union home secretary G.K. Pillai told IANS: "The introduction of the road safety bill as well as implementation of the Good Samaritan guidelines have been pending for over a year now."

"All parties must come together and support the creation of a progressive framework around road safety in India," her added.

Tewari was speaking on behalf of Colors (Coalition for Road Safety), a group of road safety non-government organisations and affected families from across India.

On November 15, Colors commemorated the millions who have been lost in road accidents in India on the World day of Remembrance and urged the government to introduce a strong road safety law in parliament.

According to the road safety activists, the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, does not address the crucial issues of bad road user behaviour, poor law enforcement, faulty road and vehicle engineering, and safety of vulnerable road users.

According to official data, in 2014 alone road crashes claimed more than 1.4 lakh lives, and left 4.8 lakh more people injured in India.

Besides causing monumental loss of life and limb, road crashes lead to a staggering economic loss of three percent of India's GDP (gross domestic product) every year, according to exprrts.