Key take-away from the 2019 Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Act
Summary
The success of autonomous vehicles depends not only on safety engineering but also on perceived safety and contextual comfort. Autonomous vehicles need to be adaptable to passenger feedback and able to adjust their driving style based on the payload they carry.
Machine learning is essential to develop an intelligent driver that can learn baseline comfort levels and common variations for each passenger. Interacting with the vehicle will also be necessary to achieve contextual comfort, and autonomous vehicles must become more human-like to succeed.
In 2016, MoRTH – Ministry of Road Transport and Highway introduced a bill having some new proposal in terms of road safety with stiffening penalties, was passed in the Lok Sabha in 2017 but failed to pass through in Rajya Sabha, which now has gained the importance of implementation due to higher fatality rate though the total number of accident reported is on a descend.
The following are the amendments made by the central government:
Existing and New Rules with New Penalty
| Section / Offence | Old Penalty (in ₹) | New Penalty (in ₹) |
| General (177) | ₹100 | ₹500 |
| Rules of road regulation violation (new 177A) | ₹100 | ₹500 |
| No Helmet | ₹100 | ₹1000+Disqualification for 3 months for licence |
| Seat Belt (194 B) | ₹100 | ₹1000 |
| Overloading of two-wheelers (194 C) | ₹100 | ₹2,000+Disqualification for 3 months for licence |
| Travelling without a ticket (178) | ₹200 | ₹500 |
| Over speeding (183) | ₹400 | ₹1,000 for LMV; ₹2,000 for Medium passenger vehicle |
| Speeding/ Racing (189) | ₹500 | ₹5,000 |
| Disobedience of orders of authorities (179) | ₹500 | ₹2,000 |
| Driving without licence (181) | ₹500 | ₹5,000 |
| Driving without qualification (182) | ₹500 | ₹10,000 |
| Driving without insuarance (196) | ₹1000 | ₹2,000 |
| Unauthorized use of vehicles without licence (180) | ₹1000 | ₹5,000 |
| Dangerous driving penalty (184) | ₹1000 | Up to ₹5,000 |
| Drunken driving (185) | ₹2000 | ₹10,000 |
| Overloading (194) | ₹2,000 + ₹1,000 per extra tonne | ₹20,000 + ₹2,000 per extra tonne |
| Vehicle without permit (192A) | Up to ₹5,000 | Up to ₹10,000 |
| Aggregators (violations of licencing conditions) (193) | New | ₹25,000 to ₹1,00,000 |
| Overloading of Passengers (194A) | New | ₹1,000 per extra passenger |
| Not providing way for emergency vehicles (194E) | New | ₹10,000 |
| Oversized vehicles (182B) | New | ₹5,000 |
| Offences by Juveniles (199) | New | Guardian/ Owner shall be deemed guilty. Rs 25,000 with 3 years imprisonment. Juvenile to be tried under JJ Act. Registration of Motor Vehicle to be cancelled. |
| Power of officers to impound documents (206) | New | Suspension of driving licence under sections 183, 184, 185, 189, 190, 194C, 194D, 194E |
| Offences committed by enforcing authorities (210B) | New | Twice the penalty under the relevant section |
This bill also has made the following provisions:
- Scheme for cashless treatment of the road accident victim during the Golden hour.
- Protection of the Good Samaritan, the person who provides medical or non-medical assistance to the victim at the time of accident.
- Provides online Learners’ License with mandatory online identification verification.
Who is a Good Samaritan and privilege exercised by him:
- A Good Samaritan is who informs police or an emergency service on coming upon an injured person, who shall not be compelled to reveal his personal details.
- A Good Samaritan will not be liable for any civil or criminal action for any injury or death caused to the victim.
- If any public official coerce the good Samaritan to reveal his / her personal details, will be liable to disciplinary action taken on them.
- A Good Samaritan can not to be forced to bear the cost of treatment. No hospital be private or public, cannot demand payment for registration and admissions costs from any bystander who brings the victim to the hospital.
- If any hospitals refuses to render treatment to a victim; Lack of response from a doctor during an critical situation shall be considered as “Professional Misconduct” and disciplinary action would be taken against such a doctor (as per Indian Medical Council Regulations, 2002).
Team VAMOSYS
Team VAMOSYS have been into GPS business since 2014 and have good experience on GPS Vehicle Tracking, Fuel Monitoring, Fleet Management and GPS Tracker Devices. Writes article on various topics to share the industry experiences and knowledge.