Experts back tech use & steep fines

Signal jumping, driving against the traf fic flow, triple seat riding, lane cutting, over speeding, talking on the cellphone while driving and juveniles getting behind the wheel, rampant in Pune and across the country, are traffic rule violations that have increased road fatalities.
A group of state transport ministers' will meet next week in Bengaluru to discuss a nearly ten-fold increase in fines, suspension and cancellation of licences and imprisonment for traffic offenders.It has has the social media and routine conversations abuzz with reactions.
A committee constituted by the ministry of road transport and highways has worked on the proposal which is part of the government's larger strategy to reduce road fatalities and tame errant drivers.
The stiff penalties must be backed by tough payment procedures, road-safety awareness campaigns and a complete overhaul of the legislation, experts said, adding that technology driven enforcement of traffic rules can go a long way in reducing road fatalities.
Top priority should be accorded to ways to reduce road fatalities, stressed Rajendra Sidhaye, president of Save Pune Traffic Movement.
“The measly Rs 100 fine is hardly a deterrent in today's time and the hike in fines will obviously serve as a deterrent. However, making it tough for the offenders to get back their driving licence by mandating a visit to the court among others, will be more effective. The issue of corruption among traffic police needs to be dealt with separately. Focus should only be on reducing the number of people breaking the law, which will directly bring down the fatalities,“ he said.
While most agreed that steep fines and jail terms would check indiscipline on the road, sceptics said whatever be the fine, it will hardly deter offenders who may get away by paying smaller sums to the police officers as bribes.
According to the ministry, India faces severe problems in dealing with deteriorating road safety. The number of fatalities has increases to at 1.46 lakh deaths in 2015.
As a signatory to the Brasilia Declaration, India is committed to reducing the number of road accidents and fatalities by 50% by 2020.
Increasing the penalties for offenders is only one part of the revamp strategy that the government should implement, believes Saji Cherian, director (operations) at Save Life Foundation, a non-profit, non-governmental organization focused on improving road safety and emergency care across India.
Cherian said, “The archaic penalties obviously need to be reviewed for them to really be deterrents. But overhauling the entire system is necessary and it has been demonstrated by countries which have actually managed to curtail their road fatalities.“ He said road safety needs to be driven by science and technology rather than only police officers. “Greater emphasis needs to be accorded to the CCTV camera network, echallaning systems and even leveraging the use of number-plate recognizing cameras to catch and penalize offenders,“ he said.
Cherian urges the state governments to come on board to separate road safety from the contentious aspects of the proposed Road Transport and Safety Bill to reduce road fatalities and improve post-crash response.
Prince Singhal, founder of Community Against Drunk Driving suggested a focus on environment, enforcement, engineering and education to reduce accidents. While terming the hike in fines as the only way to instil fear in the minds of drivers, Singhal places greater emphasis on scientific enforcement.