With an aim to reduce
increasing risk to small children and pedestrians from reversing or rolling
back motor vehicles , the government
will soon make rear view sensors or backup camera’s mandatory on all new
vehicles. Recently a three-year-old kid had died in Delhi due to reversing
vehicle in front of his parents.
Rear view cameras and sensors
comes as standard in all up market cars that include those of Audi,
Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Volvo, besides others. The top end variants of almost
all car makes too come with this feature. But among the mass market cars, this
feature is missing, especially in its base models and variants above that.
“Although most cars come
equipped with rear view mirrors which are adequate for detecting vehicles
behind a car, but they are inadequate for detecting small children or objects
close to the ground, which fall in the car's blind spot. The Ministry of Road
Transport and Highways (MoRTH) will soon issue a notification to make rear view
sensors mandatory in all vehicles.” said Abhay Damle , Joint Secretary,
Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) while speaking at curtain raiser for World Roads Meet (WRM
2017 ) organised by International Road Federation (IRF) on September 8, 2016.
India will host, for the first
time, the International Road Federation’s four-day World Road Meeting (WRM
2017) from November 14-17, 2017. About 3000 road safety, infrastructure and
transport experts from across the world will take part in the World Roads Meet.
The major highlight of the WRM 2017 will be a Summit of Transport Ministers
from various parts of the globe. The theme of the WRM will be Safe Roads and
Smart Mobility : The Engines of Economic Growth’.
Meanwhile Damle noted that “As
more than 50,000 fatal accidents in the country take place due to over
speeding, the Road Ministry is also planning to make speed warning beep audio
warning mandatory in vehicles on similar lines of seat belt wearing sign. At
speed of 80 kmph, a small beep sound warning will come and after the speed of
90kmph, a continuous beep will alarm the speeding driver”.
“The government has already made it compulsory
for all two-wheelers, which account for the highest share of accidents in the
country, to either have the anti-lock braking system (ABS) or the combined
braking system (CBS) by April 2019. Apart from rear view sensors and speed
warning, air bags will also become mandatory in all vehicles soon. From October
1, 2018 all vehicles will have to go in
for automated inspection and fitness
certification test with hardly any human
intervention, similarly Driving Licence test will also become automated by that
time. This will help in reducing fatal road accidents,” added Damle.
Damle further noted that in
the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, which will be introduced in the coming
winter session of the parliament, provisions have been made for legal
protection of good samaritans who help accident victims. The government has added a significant clause
under which a good samaritan’s affidavit will have the legal force of a
statement. If a statement is required, it should be recorded in a single
examination. And for further information the judicial or law officer will have
to go to his house and record the statement, he added.