Commercial vehicles reflective strips

All Commercial vehicles including auto-rickshaws, e-rickshaws and e-carts will have to fix retro-reflective tapes for greater visibility during night and this will be applicable to such vehicles irrespective of their year of manufacturing.

NEW DELHI: All Commercial vehicles including auto-rickshaws, e-rickshaws and e-carts will have to fix retro-reflective tapes for greater visibility during night and this will be applicable to such vehicles irrespective of their year of manufacturing.

Commercial Vehicles must have reflective strips for night visibility

In a draft notification, the road transport ministry has said that three-wheelers including e-rickshaw and e-carts shall be affixed at the front with a white reflective tape and at the rear with a red reflective tape running across the width of the body.

Without complying with these norms commercial vehicles cannot get fitness certificate and it’s illegal to ply any vehicle without having a valid fitness certificate. Stationary vehicles on road at night pose serious risk as it’s difficult to spot them and in most of the cases drivers don’t put cautionary signage for other vehicles. It becomes far more dangerous in cities where the number of e-rickshaws has increased significantly.

According to 2017 road accident data, accidents involving parked vehicles had claimed 2,317 lives. The report of 2018 has not yet been published.

Officials said the ministry had issued a notification in November 2008 in which it had introduced a mandatory provision to fix retro-reflective tapes on all commercial vehicles manufactured after April 2009. “It has come to our notice that owners of most of the older vehicles, taking advantage of this notification, are getting exemption during their annual fitment test,” said an official.

As per the draft notification, the reflective tapes on three-wheelers at the front and rear shall be not be less than 20mm in width. “This is a very welcome step. We have also been pushing for mandatory use of reflective tapes on bicycles and rickshaws since speeding vehicles can’t even spot them in the dark. This is the cheapest and simplest intervention to reduce accidents and fatalities,” said K K Kapila, former president of International Road Federation.

Source: http://bit.ly/2YCcyVC