New Delhi:
Three days ago, two men out for morning walk in Delhi died after they were hit by a speeding car allegedly being driven by a drunk 21-year-old student.
The accused, Rishabh, is a business administration student. His father is a businessman. Around 6 am on Monday, he was returning from a party at a friend's house in his father's Honda City car and was allegedly racing at a speed over 100 Kmph.
He allegedly hit three people in 90 seconds, one after another, in a stretch less than 1.5 km long. While two of them - Ashwini Anand, 67, and Kameshwar Prasad, 40 - died, a third was critically injured.
Rishabh was arrested after a police patrol team chased him and was charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Police said when he was caught, he couldn't even manage to stand up. Alcohol level in his blood sample was found to be five times higher than permissible limit.
This was the second case in the city this year in which the accused was slapped with the more stringent charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, instead of causing death by negligence which is a bailable offence.
Data released by transport minister Nitin Gadkari earlier this week shows that of the total number of accidents in the country in 2015, drivers were at fault in 77% cases. In most of these cases (62.2%), over-speeding caused the accidents. Drunk driving was responsible for 4.2% of these accidents.
While releasing the data, the minister said he hopes the new and more stringent Motor Vehicle Act will be passed in the upcoming session of Parliament. He said a National Road Safety Board was also on the anvil and added that people violating rules will face stricter penalties.
While the government is hoping the new law can be brought before Parliament at the earliest after consultations with state governments, activists have once again pointed out that changes to current laws on road safety have been pending for long.
"The law which governs this space is the Motor Vehicles Act 1988 and as the name suggests, it was enacted nearly 30 years ago. Economic liberalization in India was just about starting then so it is very, very outdated. We need a much stronger legislation," said Piyush Tewari of SaveLife Foundation.