Team Herald
MARGAO: The Green Goa Foundation has urged the government to take measures to prevent road accidents, including implementation of the amended provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act.
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The Foundation said that the accidents often result in deaths of and disabilities to the victims.
The Foundation has made the request in the wake of the fatal accident in Verna that killed three minor children.
The Foundation has warned that if the government fails to act on its request it in the shortest possible time, it would explore legal means.
“The country seems to be worried about coronavirus but in reality at least in Goa, the major cause of deaths and disabilities are motor vehicle accidents. There has been a twenty-five fold increase in the number of vehicles in Goa over the last fifty years without a corresponding improvement in the quality of roads resulting in an accident every few kilometre,” Foundation Chairman Raison Almeida pointed out.
“The recent deaths of three under aged youth at Verna when their vehicle fell into a rivulet are a case in point. While the children should not have been driving a car, the fact also remains that at the spot of the accident there is a big invisible depression in the road which must have led to the accident,” he said.
“It is time that the government and NGOs hold driving classes for irresponsible parents who encourage driving by their minor children, which is a hazard to the driver as well as to others on the road,” Almeida said.
“While the law has been amended and the punishment for traffic violation has been enhanced all over the country, we in Goa continue to follow the old regulations,” Almeida said.
The drivers will not learn to follow the rules unless they are heavily penalised as contemplated by the amended law,” Almeida said calling upon the government to enforce the new provisions of M V Act in Goa.
