By IANS
New Delhi : Parents should be legally held responsible for any death in accident caused by their underage children, experts said Thursday, a day after a minor ran over another boy in a road accident.
“New laws should be framed where parents can also be booked for death caused by their underage children’s negligence in driving,” former Delhi Police joint commissioner (traffic) Maxwell Pereira told IANS.
“Children driving vehicles illegally not only pose threat to the people on roads, but also put their own lives in jeopardy. Parents should understand the gravity of the situation and disallow their children from such practice,” he added.
On Tuesday, a 12-year-old boy allegedly ran over a three-year-old boy and injured his mother after he lost control of his father’s Toyota Quails car in Paschim Vihar area of west Delhi. He was later granted bail.
Noted Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan said the definition of ‘rash or negligent act’ under the Section 304A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Motor Vehicles Act that deal with such offences should be made more stringent.
They should be made non-bailable offences in case of an adult in the driving seat and if a minor is found guilty, the owner of the vehicle should be booked for the offence.
Adds K.K Manan, president of Delhi Bar Council: “Parents should keep a strict eye over their children. They must ensure that children are not driving the vehicle for fun before the legal age.
“The police should crack down hard if any underage child is found driving a vehicle on city roads,” he said.
Delhi Police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said: “This year so far, the traffic police have fined more than 2,500 underage children as compared to 1,600 last year. The number has definitely gone up but the prime responsibility lies with parents.”
The experts also say that punishment in such cases should be enhanced with immediate effect and authorities should enforce the existing laws more effectively and severely.
“The imprisonment for death due to negligence driving should be enhanced from two years to at least five years. The fine should also be raised manifold,” Pereira said.
Bhushan said the present laws are outdated because they were framed at a time when the traffic situation was entirely different.
“The existing laws should be immediately amended as they don’t have strong teeth to nail the accused. We certainly believe that punishment should be increased,” he said.
He also blamed corruption in the state transport department and the police force for the rising number of accidents and the guilty going scot-free.
A senior Delhi Police official, declining to be named, admitted as much, saying policemen are also to be blamed for the high acquittal rate. They deliberately conduct the probe in an accident case in a shoddy manner to save the accused, he said.
Although a law commission had proposed amendments in the century-old Section 304A of the IPC in 1995, the government is yet to implement them.
The panel’s main consideration was that the punishment for rash and negligent driving should be made more stringent.
The number of years for which a man can be sent to jail after being proven guilty should be increased from two years to five, it said. It also recommended an increase in the amount of fine to be paid by the accused.