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Learn to drive sensibly or perish

Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill provides for hefty fine, helping good samaritans

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Beware drivers! Here comes the Motor Vehicles legislation with fresh amendments that can slap you a hefty monetary cost plus suspension or impounding of licence.

Fancy this: drunken driving will attract a fine of Rs 10,000 for first offence and if you venture to commit it again within three years of first offence it will attract a penalty of Rs 50,000. You can be fined Rs 5,000 for racing on the road for first offence and Rs 10,000 for second. Parking on public road causing impediment to traffic can make you pay Rs 500 per hour plus removal charges. Using mobile phones while driving will attract fine of Rs 5,000.

In cases of traffic violations by juveniles, the guardian/owner of the car will be held responsible, unless they can prove the offence was committed without their knowledge or they tried to prevent it. The juvenile will be tried under the Juvenile Justice Act. The registration of the vehicle involved will stand cancelled. In case of surrender of licence because of any violation, the driver will not be authorised until he/she gets back the licence.

Driving an unregistered vehicle will fetch the owner fine five times the annual road tax or one-third of the lifetime tax of the vehicle, whichever is higher. The dealer shall be punishable with fine of fifteen times the annual road tax or the lifetime tax of the motor vehicle.

Aiming to alter the driving behaviour of people that has made India the accident capital of the world, recording 1.46 lakh deaths as compared to 38,300 in the US in 2015, Union road and transport minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday introduced the motor vehicles (amendment) bill, 2019.

Expecting little opposition, the government is hoping the bill to pass and become an Act within days from now. The bill has been hanging fire for past five years and has been cleared by the standing committee of the parliament.

Along with hefty fines, the bill also proposes to make life easier for the Good Samaritans who wish to help in case of an accident. They need not fear the law now as the bill protects them for rendering emergency medical or non-medical care or assistance, including transporting the victim to the hospital, in good faith, voluntarily and without expectation of any reward or compensation.

To keep the drivers under tight leash and not to escape the law, the bill proposes a National Register of Driving Licences under the central government. This national register will subsume all States Registers of Driving Licences and will see that no driving licence issued or renewed under the Act shall be valid unless it has been issued a unique driving licence number under the National Register of Driving Licences. The amendment makes the use of Aadhaar number mandatory for applying for driving licence and vehicle registrations.

It reduces the current validity of the driving licence from 20 years to 10 years and for people renewing their licences after the age of 55, the validity will be only five years. However, the time limit for renewal of driving licence will be increased from current one month to one year before and after the expiry date.

The bill makes insurance against third party risks compulsory. The bill provides for compensation on the basis of no-fault liability, scheme for the treatment of accident victims during the golden hour and provides for increase in the compensation to accident victims to five lakh rupees in the case of death and two and a half lakh rupees in the case of grievous hurt. It, however, does not stop the victims to approach courts for higher compensation.

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