The government is planning major reforms in the Motor Vehicles Act after a traffic violation resulted in the death of senior Cabinet minister Gopinath Munde on Tuesday.

Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari raised concerns regarding road safety in the Cabinet meeting on Thursday. The government will study traffic safety norms in six countries - America, Japan, UK, Germany, Singapore and Canada - before implementing reforms in India. The government, among other key reforms, is looking for a plan where a traffic light can be connected to a server, which will have the option to cancel a driving license in the event of three traffic light violations.

"In 2012, there were 4,90,000 accidents and 1,38,000 death reported. We will focus on those black spots where more than 10 accidents happened on past. The Motor Vehicle Act will be amended for standard safety. We will order all manufacturer of heavy vehicles to cover back so that no small vehicle crashes in.If anyone violates road rules more than three times then his driving licence to be suspended for 6 months and after that permanent cancellation of DL is being considered," said Gadkari.

Munde's death in a car crash in the capital has brought into sharp focus once again the alarming number of fatalities on Indian roads with little thought on safety. To put this alarming data in perspective, almost half the equivalent population of some countries, such as Iceland or the Maldives, is wiped out on Indian roads every year.

"National Road Safety Council will be formed after one month. We are planning to monitor road violations with the help of automatic camera units," said the minister.



Nearly 460 people died and 1,301 more were injured daily in traffic accidents in the country during 2012, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) of the ministry of home affairs. This means 19 deaths every hour or more than one death every three minutes.