Safe driving on highways

Over speeding and rash driving are behind most accidents on highways. Imposition of fine for violation of speed limit is a deterrent action to make people driving on highways aware that over speeding poses risk to their lives and also to others. The Central Government had recently hiked the amount of fine against violation of safety rules to make highways safer for everyone. Apart from overspeeding, drunken driving, using mobile phones, not following road safety signs while driving cause accidents, loss of lives and grave injuries to thousands of people every day. In Assam, 6533 road accidents caused 2629 deaths in 2020 against 8350 accidents that caused 3208 deaths in 2019. The decline in 2020 can be attributed to less movement of vehicles on account of travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Enforcement of speed limits also requires the transport authorities to display proper signage visible from a distance so that drivers can take precautions well in time and drive safely by sticking to stipulated speed limits. As the primary objective of imposition of the speed limit is to prevent accidents and save lives, it is the responsibility of highway and transport authorities to alert the drivers well ahead through the proper display of warning signage on speed limit so that the drivers become cautious and reduce the speed even before reaching the particular stretch. Imposing fines by deploying interceptor vehicles and speed radar guns without adequate warning measures reduces its primary objective as a deterrent action against overspeeding to mere means of revenue collection. Allegations of imposition of fines of Rs 2000 on stretches where signboards on speed limit are not properly visible need to be looked into by the government and take corrective measures. Highways remaining barrier-free is also equally important to prevent accidents. Often the trucks, trailers and other vehicles kept parked along National Highways in Assam are reported to cause accidents as speeding vehicles from behind collide with such stationary vehicles during the night or foggy days. It is the responsibility of the highway authorities to provide a truck bay and space for the parking of vehicles so that the entire stretch of the highway remains barrier-free. Tolls collected from vehicles playing on highways are meant to be spent on maintenance of highways and providing wayside amenities to users of the highways. Large potholes along National Highway 37 have become death traps but demands to repair those have fallen on deaf ears. The "Policy Guidelines for Development of Wayside Amenities along National Highways and Expressways" circulated to all states and Union Territories in February, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways stated that "Provision of wayside amenities along National Highway and Expressways are essential since both the passengers and drivers need certain minimum wayside facilities to make their travel safe, comfortable and convenient in order to reduce fatigue in a long-distance journey." Norm under new policy guidelines requires the Highway Authorities to make efforts to set up wayside amenities at every 40-60 km of travel distance and applying the norm separately in each direction for divided carriageway. The guidelines also state that adequate signage for the wayside amenity shall be provided by the Authority at three locations each within 2 km on both sides of the amenity in case of undivided carriageways. In the case of divided carriageways, signage shall be provided at three locations within two km before the wayside amenity along the direction of traffic flow. In addition, signage highlighting the distance to the next wayside amenity shall be installed before the gap in the median in the opposite direction for traffic flowing in the opposite direction. The cost of such signage shall be borne by Highway Authority, adds the new guidelines. Making highways safer through regular maintenance and repairing of potholes, adequate and visible signage, preventing parking on highways by providing wayside amenities, adequate lighting to make night driving safer will facilitate faster but safer driving. The absence of wayside amenities has led to the imposition of speed limits of 50 km on too many stretches of 40-50 km travel distance along national highways in Assam which has posed obstacles in achieving the objective of improvement of the old double lane into a four-lane expressway to provide faster mobility. The current maximum speed limit notified by the Central government is 100 km/hour for national highways and 120 km/hour for expressways for cars, 80 km/hour for bikes and 100 km/for trucks and buses. When the objective of achieving the maximum speed limit through safe driving is to allow more vehicles on highways and expressways, unwarranted impositions of speed limits as low as 50 km/hour on too many stretches will make the highways in Assam slow, crowded, and chaotic. There are no two views that highways must be safer for everyone, but the imposition of fine alone cannot ensure safe driving.