NEW DELHI: More than 1.35 million people die and up to 50 million become physically disabled across the globe due to non-fatal injuries annually as a result of road crashes. India saw over one million people lose their lives on roads during the last decade. Data also reveal that more than half of those killed past year were in the productive age group of 15 to 34, pointing to a calamitous loss of young lives.
Primary reasons for road accidents are poor roads, speeding, overloading of goods vehicles, driving motorized two-wheelers without helmets etc. Human errors are responsible in causing accidents to the extent of 80-90% cases (i.e. mistakes or wrong judgements of drivers or other commuters). It is imperative to issue driving licenses in most judicious, scientific manner in a rigorous framework with a rider that traffic violations would not be tolerated. Traffic violations not only result in heavy penalty but also may lead to confiscation of driving licence.
It is worth mentioning that many developed countries have addressed this issue by not only designing good roads and implementing strong enforcement measures but also by adopting tough standards for granting driving licences.
Recently, the Government of India has taken a strong initiative to issue Uniform Driving Licences that would perhaps commence on first of July, 2019. This will be in fact a Smart Driving Licence designed with microchip where it will be embedded with RC and QR code.
Enforcement personnel can quickly access details of information from the smart driving licence as well as from the RC when it is place in the hand-held device to be activated with the help of Near Field Communication system. This driving licence characterised by the National and State emblems along with the name of issuing authority will have all relevant information of the driver including blood group, and type of road vehicle being driven.
With one swipe of this new age card, it will be able to weed off over 25% of drivers who hold more than one driving licences and also keep a check on frequent traffic violations. The government has not made it mandatory to link driving licence to Aadhaar card so far, but it can be linked easily in near future after the passage of the Motor Vehicle Amendment Bill in Parliament.
Licence owners will find an option to get their cards replaced with new ones. Though this move initiated by the government deserves a lot of appreciation, more initiatives are needed given that more than 50 per cent fatalities in the country are from the age group of 18-34 years.
Generally, young drivers are more prone to mishaps and crashes on the road as compared to their older counterparts. However, crashes involving young drivers are generally the result of one or more of these vulnerable situations: i) driving at night, ii) sharp bends and/or excessive speed, iii) adverse driving conditions, iv) the increased chance of having a crash when carrying passengers and v) attitude of the driver.
It is seriously felt that Graduated Driving Licence as adopted by many countries such as South Africa, Hong Kong, the UK, Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand should be introduced in our country to shield our young drivers. The concept of Graduated Driving Licence is related to three steps process allowing the drivers to acquire driving skill from Learner Driving License to Restricted or Probationary Licence and further to finally graduated to a Full Driver Licence.