New Delhi: The implementation of the new Motor Vehicles Act, which was accompanied by uproar due to drastic spike in fine for traffic offences, has led to reduction in road accidents and fatalities in many states, the government said Thursday.
Chandigarh and Puducherry recorded the most significant drop in accidents among seven states and two union territories in India, according to the data cited by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highway, in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.
The number of fatalities in Chandigarh went down by 75 per cent (from 8 to 2) and in Puducherry the number decreased by 30.7 per cent(from 13 to 9).
The ministry compared the data between 2018 and 2019 for the months of September and October.
Other states that witnessed a decrease in the number of road-related fatalities were Uttarakhand (by 21.8 per cent from 78 to 61), Gujarat (by 13.8 per cent from 557 to 480) and Bihar (by 10.5 per cent from 459 to 411).
A drop in number of accidents were also recorded in Kerala (2.1 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (9.8 per cent) and Haryana (11.8 per cent).
Chhattisgarh was the only exception in the list and saw a spike in fatalities by 4 per cent from 293 in 2018 to 305 in 2019.
The government also said that it had not received information from any state about not
implementing the provisions of the Act.
The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2019 came into effect from 1 September after it was passed by the Rajya Sabha in July. The bill replaced the 26-year-old Motor Vehicles Act, which was last amended in 2001.
The new law imposed stricter provisions and heavier fines on road-related offences with penalties for drunken driving increased to Rs 20,000 from Rs 2,000. It also introduced fines for not providing way for emergency vehicles and juvenile driving.
According to reports, India saw the most number of deaths due to road accident among 199 countries, as per World Road Statistics.
Also read: Can steep fines & jail time under Motor Vehicles Bill be enforced and deter people?
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