Hyderabad: Road builders escape from accidents probe

Hyderabad: Despite increasing penalties for traffic rule violations, the draft Road Transport and Safety Bill has failed to address a couple of crucial areas that can help in bringing down the number of road accidents.

Experts say that the proposed amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act do not hold contractors and civic agencies responsible for faulty road designs and poor maintenance. They say appropriate amendments should be included so that the MV Act clearly spells out the penalties and punishment for accidents caused due to potholes, bad roads and road engineering defects.

Mr Saji Cherian, director (operations) Save Life Foundation, said recently an accident had occurred in Delhi wherein a biker was crushed under the wheels of a heavy vehicle. A case was booked against the driver of the heavy vehicle. Later, enquiries revealed that the front tyre of the bike had got stuck in a pot-hole due to which the biker was thrown away and fell under the wheels of the vehicle. It was not the fault of the driver but of bad road conditions.

“The Road safety Bill has been introduced in Parliament. We are taking up the issue with MPs and officials of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to fix accountability on agencies and contractors in the MV Act,” he said.

Traffic and transport expert from JNTU, Prof. P.R. Bhanu Murthy said, “The Ministry of Road Transport can look into this issue and include it in its amendments to fix penalties and punishments for contractors, engineers and civic body officials for failing to maintain roads. In foreign countries there is a provision for citizens suing officials for their negligence.”

Former director general of Engineering Staff College of India, Dr S. Nagabhushan Rao said, “Presently, law and order police files FIRs and Accident Information Reports. The investigation is not scientifically based. The MV Act can come out with a proforma like whether there were any pot-holes, lack of signage, defective road curves etc. that could have resulted in the accident. It is not always the drivers’ fault,” he added.