Voluntary body calls for Motor Bill with more teeth

Ahead of a parliamentary panel meeting on the proposed Motor Bill tomorrow, Consumer Voice, a voluntary body, has pitched for a strong legislation, given the fact that India reports nearly 1.5 lakh road-related deaths annually.
In a letter to the Parliamentary Standing Committee, the body has urged its members to strengthen the provisions in the proposed Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill.
"Over 13 lakh people have been killed in road accidents in India in the past decade, of which 1.46 lakh people were killed in 2015 alone. This Bill with key provisions further strengthened will prove to be critical in addressing this epidemic," Consumer Voice said in a statement.

It hoped that the Bill will prove to be a crucial step towards achieving the target of reducing road fatalities by 50 per cent by 2020 as committed by the government at the Brasilia Conference on Road Safety in 2015.
It has also suggested measures like mandatory use of child restraint systems, saying it should be based on specific weight and/or height rather than age.
Child restraint system is an added safety seat meant for kids.

Rear-facing restraints for children aged 0 to 23 months have been shown to reduce the risk of death or injury by over 90 per cent and forward facing child restraints by almost 80 per cent compared to being unrestrained, it said.

It has also proposed that children under 4 years should not be allowed on two wheelers or there should be appropriate headgears.
Also, the voluntary organisation demanded rationalisation of penalties for life-threatening offences, besides blood alcohol content regulation for new drivers.