New Delhi, June 19: As road accidents are rising, so is the number of drivers fleeing the spot, government figures show.
More than 60,000 hit-and-run cases were reported in the country last year, making up 12 per cent of the 5 lakh road accidents, a report by the Union road transport and highways ministry says.
These 60,083 cases accounted for 14.2 per cent of the total road accident toll of 1.46 lakh lives, suggesting a driver is likelier to scoot in case of a death.
"Hit-and-run cases have been rising constantly through the past decade, and one of the biggest reasons is the government's failure to curb drink-driving," said Prince Singhal, founder president of the Community Against Drunken Driving, a Delhi-based NGO.
"Drunken driving is behind about 70 per cent of road accident fatalities in India, which comes to about one lakh road deaths every year."
Recently, a 21-year-old driver who was allegedly caught fleeing after an elderly man was knocked down during his morning walk in Delhi showed five times the permissible alcohol limit in his blood, Delhi police said.
Ministry officials say they have revived a proposal to stiffen the punishment for drivers who flee the spot after involvement in a fatal road accident.
"Last year, the Union home ministry had begun the process for inserting a new penal code provision increasing the punishment for fatal hit-and-run accidents," a transport division official said.
"The proposed section, 304(A)(2), stipulated up to seven years' jail for killing a person on the road and driving away. The proposal got stuck in the files but we are now talking to the home ministry to take it forward urgently."
Drivers accused of causing death by rash driving are now charged under Section 304(A) - "causing death by negligence" - which caries a maximum sentence of two years. Under the proposed amendment, two years will be the minimum penalty.
"The proposed Section 304(A)(2) will deal specifically with 'causing death or injury by rash and negligent driving' and subsequently 'driving or running away' without informing any police station within a reasonable time," another official in road minister Nitin Gadkari's office said.
India's best-known hit-and-run case involves Bollywood star Salman Khan, accused of killing a pavement sleeper and injuring four while driving in an allegedly drunken state in 2002. Bombay High Court acquitted him last December.
"There have been several high-profile hit-and-run cases in the past few years but conviction has been abysmally low," said road safety expert Piyush Tewari.
"It cries out for an urgent strengthening of our road safety legislation, which has failed to create enough deterrents for violators, many of whom feel they can get away with a small fine if caught."
Gadkari had last week admitted that the road safety situation had not changed much despite his "dedicated work and sincere efforts" over the past two years.
Data he had released showed that road accidents kill about 400 Indians every day - with 17 deaths in 57 crashes per hour - and that people aged between 15 and 34 make up over 54 per cent of those killed.
Gadkari had said that although the report blamed the drivers for 77.1 per cent of the road accidents that happened in 2015, "faulty road engineering" was a key cause.
-The Telegraph Calcutta