‘Set vehicle speed at factory level to reduce accidents’

“Our roads are not designed to take speed of imported buses, cars and bikes”

A file photo of Mercedes Benz car in Visakhapatnam.

The death of P. Nishith, son of Minister P. Narayana, in a car accident in Hyderabad has raised several questions. The foremost being: Are our (Indian) roads designed to take high speeds, at which the imported vehicles are designed to run? No. Almost all the roads in India are designed to take vehicle speeds of not more than 100 km/hr.

The use of imported buses, cars and bikes is growing in the country and when youngsters are behind the wheel, the situation can well be imagined. The thrill of driving at top speed sets their pulse racing and so does the vehicle.

“The Transport Department is planning to approach manufacturers of imported buses like Scania, Volvo and Benz to restrict the speed of their vehicles sold in India. These vehicles have a speed regulation mechanism and it can be easily altered at the manufacturer-level,” Deputy Transport Commissioner S. Venkateswara Rao told

The Hindu .

“The manufacturer has to lower the upper limit and issue a certificate to the buyer that the speed of the bus has been regulated as per the prescribed norms. The speed would be measured with speed guns installed at strategic points on the outskirts of the city,” he said.

Speed governors

“We are conducting raids on Contract Carriage (CC) buses to ensure installation of speed governors, which has now been made mandatory for transport and school buses. The emphasis at present is on CC buses as they carry passengers and over speeding could put their lives in jeopardy. The annual Fitness Certification (FC) for school buses has just started and without speed governors, the FC will not be renewed,” Mr. Venkateswara Rao said.

The speed guns, procured by the Police Department a couple of years ago, are excellent. They can capture the vehicle number, speed and vehicle position and also give the ‘coordinates’ apart from the longitudinal and latitudinal positions. There would be no escape for the accused when these details are submitted in a court.

“This is the right time to restrict the speed of imported vehicles, including imported cars and motorcycles. The government should take up the issue with the manufacturers and control the speed at the factory level itself,” opined Motor Vehicle Inspector M. Butchi Raju, when his attention was drawn to the issue.