Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari recommends setting aside time for professional truck drivers to reduce highway accidents
At times, there is also the possibility of an accident between vehicles running at high speed on the highway. There are often horrific accidents in many vehicles on the highway. In such a situation, now Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has come up with an idea. It is being claimed that the implementation of this idea will reduce the number of accidents on the highway. Know what is the idea?
Let us tell you that the Minister Nitin Gadkari has recommended to earmark time for professional truck drivers to reduce highway accidents. He also stressed on installing alert sensors to check whether the driver is sleeping in commercial vehicles. Gadkari wrote in a tweet that the duty of a truck driver should be fixed like that of a pilot. This will prevent accidents due to fatigue.
I will also write letters to CMs and Collectors to ensure that District Road Committee meetings happen regularly. Emphasised on deciding driving hours for truck drivers of commercial vehicles, similar to pilots, to reduce fatigue-induced road accidents. pic.twitter.com/2R1jvAXAV7
— Nitin Gadkari (@nitin_gadkari) September 21, 2021
In this regard, Gadkari further said that according to European standards, the authorities have been directed to work on a policy to install sensors for sleep information during driving in commercial vehicles. He said that letters would be sent to the Chief Minister and the Collector for holding regular meetings of the District Road Committees.
Minister Gadkari has talked about treating the truck driver like a pilot. Let us tell you that the pilot of an aircraft in India has a duty of 0 to 8 hours in 24 hours. There are 30 hours in a week, 125 hours in a month, 270 hours in 90 days, 1000 hours in a year, while there is no guideline for the duty of a truck driver. In most cases, a single driver is on duty for 24 to 72 hours. Most of the drivers prefer to drive the truck at night. Therefore, the number of accidents increases due to not getting enough sleep.
In terms of accidents, while road length in India has increased by 17 per cent from 2015 to 2019, the number of registered vehicles has increased by 41 per cent. The number of vehicles registered in 2015 was 21 crore, which has increased to 29.6 crore in 2019. The road length was 54.7 km in 2015, which has increased by 17% to 639 crore in 2019. The death toll in road accidents in 2015 was 1,46,113 which has come down to 1,31,714 in 2019.