NEW DELHI: L-G VK Saxena on Wednesday proposed Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to impose higher vehicle insurance premiums for the habitual offenders of traffic violations.
Saxena, in a letter to the FM, advocated for a system that links vehicle insurance premiums to the number of traffic violations recorded against each vehicle.
The L-G underlined the critical importance of this proposal for enhancing road safety and promoting responsible driving.
“There is an obvious correlation between repeat traffic offences and the risk of accidents. I would therefore suggest that a layered insurance premium system based on the frequency and severity of traffic violations,” he suggested. Saxena noted that over-speeding accounted for nearly 70% of the accidents, while violations like red-light jumping also significantly contributed to fatalities.
The proposal comes in the wake of statistics from the transport ministry, which reported over 437,000 road accidents in 2022, resulting in about 155,000 fatalities.