NEW DELHI. Those raising the hue and cry over recently hiked traffic rules violation penalties in India better have a closer look at the hefty fines and harsher laws in countries like Japan, Korea, Singapore, Sri Lanka and others including the USA.
Even a bicycle rider violating traffic rules can be slapped penalty of 30,000 KRW (South Korean Wons) in Korea, which is NOT the case in India as there does not exist any mechanism to penalize the bicycler or jaywalkers. Nor there is a penalty for honking on the roads.
As per new penalty regime in India, if a person is found driving a car in a drunken state, he will be fined 10,000 INR but the penalty in Japan for the same offense is equivalent to 677,000 INR (converted into Indian rupees). Likewise, the penalty for driving a vehicle without a license in Singapore is 517,000 INR as against 5,000 INR in India and it is around 25,800 INR for traffic signal violation as against India’s revised 5000 INR.
Driving without insurance of the vehicle, the violator can be slapped a fine of 107,000 INR in the USA whereas the revised fine amount in India is just 2,000 INR.
Even neighboring countries like Sri Lanka too revised its penalty structure for the traffic rules violators and raised penalty amount ten folds from 3000 LKR to 30,000 LKR, which is equal to 12,000 INR.
Yukihiko YAMADA, the Japanese national from Hamamatsu city, says, “The use of the horn in Japan is permitted in exceptional cases only, and that too when it is urgent to save someone’s life on the road. If used unnecessarily, the penalty is up to 20,000 JPY (about 30,000 INR) in Japan. The principal of traffic law in Japan is to ensure the safety of people. The persons on the wheels must not endanger the lives of people in the traffic system, especially the children on the road.”
For example, in Japan, the driver is permitted to use the horn in a situation when he/she senses that the lives of the people on the road were at risk and it becomes necessary to alert others for the same. Generally, the use of the horn is prohibited in Japan.
In terms of strict traffic laws and hefty penalties, Singapore not only tops the tally in Asia but in the entire world, says Hemant K. Batra, a Strategist Business, corporate, commercial, and Policy lawyer, with the law and policy practice concentrated across the globe in general, and specifically in India, for nearly three decades.
“The recent hike in traffic rules violation fines was very much needed and it’s a welcome step to check the erring drivers in the larger interest of the commuters. The revision of the penalty amount is not very significant in India though when compared with other countries. Even Sri Lanka is almost at par with India on this front. And Singapore is a fine example were violating traffic rules is almost impossible because of the tough traffic regime. The foreigners in India now feel safer while traveling here,” added Batra, who is the vice president of SAARCLAW (South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation in Law) – an association of the legal communities of the SAARC countries.
About 400 people across India die in road accidents every day and thousands get injured leading to permanent disability for some.
However, some feel that the Indian government could have made its people aware of the new penalty regime using mass media means, and given them some grace period before implementing revised fines.
While welcoming the inititiave by the Indian government Hee-chul Jung, the Chief Representative (Director), Korea International Trade Association (KITA) in India, said the roadways desparately needed an initiative like this to ensure the safety of all. The strengthening of regulations is timely and clearly tells the world that India is determined to improve road safety standards, he added.
“Korea used to have one of the highest road fatalities among the The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries for many years, which puts us in a difficult position to share the past experience. Real improvement slowly started to show after years of radio, television and actual roadside campaigns done by people along with extensive installation of safety infrastructure,” said Hee-chul Jung adding that still some newspaper articles about unlucky violators confronted with huge amount of fines shows that flexibility is neccessary.
“Perhaps, an extension of the grace period. Also, continued notifications through SNS and installing visible signage along the road explaining the consequences should help the initiative to be more successful. It will strongly remind all pedestrians, two and four wheeler dtivers that this is not a one-time event, but a neverending endeavor,” said the India chief of KITA.
