The Road Safety and Transport Authority (RSTA) is revising the Road Safety and Transport Regulations 1999 with a priority on the safety features in a vehicle. Once finalised, every vehicle that comes into the country will have to fulfil certain safety features requirement.
For many Bhutanese, the price and appearance have always been the first criteria to buy a new car. The important safety features take a back seat.
“Many vehicles that were registered in the past do not have safety features like airbags but we have been insisting on seat belts, wearing of seatbelts by both the passengers and the drivers. When we amend the regulations there will be the features required for a motor vehicle to be registered and therein will be incorporating the required safety standards,” said Prem P. Adhikari, the Chief RTO with the RSTA.
He said the Road Safety and Transport Act 1999 also don’t say much on the safety features. And now it has become crucial to take into account the safety features of a vehicle with road fatalities on the rise.
“On an annual basis, in the whole country, more than 500 vehicles on an average meet with an accident and more than 100 people die as a result of road crashes which is an alarming number,” he added.
About ten new cars hit the road every day this year amid the pandemic and accidents might increase. And most of the time it is human error. So having better safety features could be an answer to saving lives.
Yeshi Dorji
