Not wearing helmet, seat-belt may cost Rs 1000
TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: In the wake of alarming rate of accidents due to rash driving, deaths and Goa retaining its tag as a “killer state”, the State government has urged Union Ministry to hike the fines for violation of traffic rules by ten-fold, to act as a severe deterrent for unruly motorists.
According to the proposal submitted to the Union Road and Highway Ministry, the State government has demanded that the fines for traffic violations be raised from Rs 100 to Rs 1,000. The violations include non-wearing of helmets/seat belts, over speeding, rash and negligent driving, smoking while driving, drunken driving, use of cellphones, driving without licence, expired licence and others.
According to the Motor Vehicle Act, these violations are called as general traffic violations, and under Section 174 of the Act, the fine imposed is a meagre Rs 100, Director Transport Arun Desai said.
“Such small fines do not work (deter). People do not even argue when we levy fines now. They just pay Rs 100 and go off. The fine amount is too less,” Desai said adding ‘the accidents and deaths as a result of rash and negligent driving is on the rise’. As reported by Herald, on Sunday, 16 people died in road accidents in just 16 days that included nine pedestrians who were victims of negligent driving.
Desai said that at a recent meeting of the Transport Development Council in Delhi, it suggested that traffic offence fines should be raised from Rs 100 to Rs 1,000. “Once the traffic violators feel the pinch of a hefty fine, the next time, they would make it a point to follow traffic rules,” he said.
As per the statistics, this year till October end, 210 persons were killed including 120 who were on two-wheelers, in 3,505 road accidents. Goa registered 4,572
accidents in 2010 resulting in 327 deaths of which two-wheeler accidents alone caused 184 deaths. In 2011, there were 4,560 accidents which caused 333 deaths of which 178 died due to two-wheeler accidents. In 2012, Goa registered 4,312 accidents and 292 fatalities.
Goa has a vehicle population of 9.58 lakh with nearly 65000 vehicles being added every year.
The violations include non-wearing of helmets/seat belts, over speeding, rash and negligent driving, smoking while driving, drunken driving, use of cellphones, driving without licence, expired licence and others
