Government to make ABS compulsory Last Updated: Mon, Jul 07, 2014 15:12 hrs In a welcome move, taken by the government to improve safety of passengers, anti-lock braking systems (ABS) is expected to be made compulsory for all new models of commercial vehicles. The act will come into effect from April 2015. To bring this act in effect, the government is likely to start sending notices to manufacturers and will give them a time of six months to implement ABS in all their commercial vehicles. Initially, ABS will be compulsory for commercial vehicles only, while passenger vehicles will continue to have it as an optional feature. This step has been taken, keeping in mind the fact that India has the highest number of deadly accidents. More than 1.5 lakh people lose their lives in accidents every year. Statistics reveal that one person loses his life in every four minutes in accidents. In more than half of these accidents, commercial vehicles are involved. Passenger and small vehicles are the victims in most cases. More surprisingly, there are no or very few roads in India exclusively for heavy commercial vehicles. Due to this reason, these vehicles run on the same road with smaller vehicles, which increases the likelihood of fatal accidents. Also, these vehicles lack basic safety features like airbags, ABS, etc. ABS has proven to be quite successful in improving the safety of small passenger vehicles. This system prevents the vehicle from locking up in case of hard braking, which prevents the vehicle from skidding and the driver from losing control. The ABS system locks all the wheels of the vehicle at same time due to which the vehicle stops at the same place, without skidding. This gives the driver more control over the vehicle. Although this is not the first time that the government has tried to increase road safety, the new move is a major breakthrough in recent years. Seat belts were made compulsory in the late 1990s and ABS was introduced in the early 2000s. But both of these safety features were for light passenger vehicles only, considering that most of the fatalities occured in these vehicles. However, the main reason behind these accidents are heavy commercial vehicles, which do not have any such safety measure. Implementing the ABS system will not only safeguard the lives of commercial vehicle drivers, but also make the roads a safer place to drive. Incorporating ABS in commercial vehicles will certainly increase their prices. It is expected that this system will cost somewhere between Rs 50,000 to 75,000, depending upon the model of the vehicle. Including the taxes and company profits, customers may have to pay around 1 lakh extra to buy a commercial vehicle with ABS. Apart from ABS, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is also planning to enforce some other safety features, like airbags, traction control and heads-up display. Such safety features are already an essential part of vehicles in developed countries. While such moves will enhance the safety of vehicles as well as passengers, it will also increase the prices of such vehicles, thereby putting an extra burden on buyers pockets. Considering the fact that commercial vehicles mainly include trucks, buses, tractors and multi-axle trailers, most of these vehicles are owned by small business owners, suppliers and farmers. The extra financial burden on this community may create some serious issues for them. Nevertheless, the benefits fat outweigh the drawbacks and the decision made by the government is a welcome one. Although fatal accidents will never drop to zero, India can at least hope to vacate the top position in terms of fatal accidents, with this move. Text : Charu Kishnani, Car Dekho
Posted on: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 14:19:47 +0000
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