Traffic police mulls providing its database of habitual traffic offenders to insurance companies so they can charge bad drivers more
Traffic police mulls providing its database of habitual traffic offenders to insurance companies so they can charge bad drivers more
The arrest of Nooriya Haveliwala (27) in Mumbai on Saturday has added a fresh urgency to the Pune traffic police's ongoing efforts to create a database of habitual traffic offenders. Haveliwala's alleged drink driving claimed two lives, including that of a policeman. The traffic police's initiative is expected to help the cops as well as insurance companies.
"Citizens with a history of bad driving could be charged a higher premium. We are discussing the idea with the National Insurance Academy," said Deputy Commissioner of Police, Traffic, Manoj Patil.u00a0
"Drink drivers often manage to get new or duplicate licenses after their old licences get cancelled because the traffic department does not have driving history of the accused. In the last five days, we have fed the driving history of many such errant drivers into our computers," Patil added.
The traffic police expect to keep a stronger tab on such offenders once software entrepreneur Nandan Nilekani's Unique Identity Card becomes a reality. "Through the Unique Identity Card, we will access the driving history of motorists and deny him or her a license if they are found to have broken law," said Patil.
Chandmal Parmar, a member of the state-appointed Accident Prevention Committee, said, "In Europe and the USA, partying couples decide in advance who gets to drink. After the party, it is the one who has not touched alcohol, who drives the car. This should be a norm in India as well if we are to avoid accidents."
"Studies indicate that when a driver sees an obstacle at a distance of 100 metres while driving, the ideal response time is six seconds. When a vehicle is running at 60 km-per-hour, it is six seconds. At 90 km-per-hour, it is just four seconds. When it is at a speed of 120 kmph, the ideal response time is just three seconds. When reflexes are dulled from imbibing alcohol, the result can be catastrophic," said Parmar.
ADVERTISEMENT
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
