Sir,

It is very unfortunate that some of the States including Karnataka have either reduced the increased traffic penalties for various violations of road safety rules or not implementing the amended Motor Vehicles Act (MV Act), due to the pressure of violators backed mostly by political parties (SOM dated Sept. 22, 2019) and thus diluted the spirit of the amendments made to the MV Act recently.

Public fear ONLY about increased penalties, but not about road accidents if they do not follow safety guidelines. Even after increasing fines, people are jumping signals, driving while talking on mobile phones, driving against one-way rules, riding triple or more without helmets, etc.

A couple days back, a drunk auto driver jumped into a canal in AP to escape from being caught by Traffic Police! Even after knowing about revised tariffs, he was riding auto in drunken state! As rightly pointed out by Prof. Satyan that if public follow all safety guidelines why they will be penalised (SOM dated Sept.22).

Our country has committed itself to world apex bodies to reduce the number of road accidents, accident deaths and injuries. Unless we take such drastic steps, it is highly impossible to reduce these in our country and a majority arrogantly argue with Police without accepting their violations and many are escaping without getting caught. Number of violations has not come down in the city since the introduction of revised laws. With the reduced tariffs, it is very clear that violators are neither going to stop their violations nor worry about the penalties. In the near future, the violators may throw a challenge to Traffic Police !

– Dr. S. V. N. Vijayendra, Traffic Warden, Roopanagar, 23.9.2019

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