Times
of India: Chennai: Wednesday, 12 November 2014.
The death of
a two-and-a-half-year-old boy on Tuesday in an accident involving an MTC bus
has once again brought the safety of children on roads in focus. A draft bill,
now put up for public debate by the Union government, seeks to frame stringent
rules to ensure safety of children in vehicles and on roads.
According to
the proposed rules, offences like a person driving a vehicle in an unsafe
condition with a child, the driver being drunk, three people on a vehicle and
people riding or driving without helmets or safety belts will attract stern
punishment, including imprisonment and fine.
The draft
bill has been uploaded on the website of the Union ministry of road transport
and highways (MORTH) and public can submit their feedback on
http://morth.nic.in/index2.asp?slid=1479&sublinkid=932&lang=1.
The proposed
road safety legislative framework envisages forming a National Authority for
Road Safety, State Transport Authority and National Transport and Multimodal
Coordination Authority. The draft bill proposes to ensure protective gear for
children on motorcycles and cycles through child helmets and plans the
introduction of child zones with speed limits and adequate signages in areas
frequented by children such as schools and parks.
It also plans
to include accountability of adults to ensure that the adult carrying a child
on a vehicle is responsible for the child's safety. It plans to introduce rules
to ensure children are not seated dangerously and putting up child restraint
systems in cars.
According to
statistics, at least 20 children are killed in road accidents across the
country daily. Child deaths in road accidents have increased in 2013 with a 9%
increase in road fatalities of girls. As per National Crime Records Bureau
records, child deaths in road accidents are 4 times higher than murder and
infanticide.
In an RTI
query-based study conducted by Save LIFE Foundation, an NGO, across 18 states
and Union Territories in 2012, it was found that 28 children were killed in
every 100 road accidents.
.JPG)
.JPG)
