Sir, The rise in the number of road accidents and related deaths or injuries in our country is indeed worrying one and all. To curtail this trend, strict actions are being taken in some States without waiting for the proposed amendments in the road safety bill. During the last financial year (2017-18) more than 2.53 lakh cases have been booked in Andhra Pradesh alone, which clearly indicates the extent road safety rules are being violated. These include talking over mobile phone while driving, rash driving and over-speeding, drunken driving, over-loading and transporting people in goods vehicle, etc. Of these, the licenses of over 2,900 drivers have been suspended for 3-6 months and it was made clear that if found driving during the suspension period, they will be sent for prosecution. Similar strict actions are also required across the country as a majority of the vehicle users are not at all bothering about the road safety and are blatantly violating all sorts of road safety rules including signal (red) jumping in busy areas, which is a serious threat for other road- users, even in the presence of CCTVs and Traffic Police.
- A concerned citizen, Mysuru, 9.5.2018
