Lok Sabha Debates
Need For Parking And Resting Facilities For Truck Drivers Plying On ... on 3 March, 2020
Seventeenth Loksabha an> Title: Need for parking and resting facilities for truck drivers plying on Hosur-Salem-Kochi stretch of National Highway -laid.
SHRI V.K. SREEKANDAN (PALAKKAD): The main reason as per initial report for the accident that happened in the wee hours of 20.02.2020 at Avinashi in Tamil Nadu, involving a bus and a container truck, in which 19 persons have lost their lives and many others sustained serious injuries, was due to the container truck driver dozing off at the wheels. Earlier there was a shift system for the truck drivers plying vehicles on long distance routes with sleeper facility in the cabin which has been done away with the current Motor Vehicles Amendment Act, forcing the truck drivers to drive the vehicles without any break for a longer duration. This needs to be rolled back again. Hosur-Salem-Kochi stretch on the National Highway is the highest vehicular traffic stretch in the country. Since this stretch is having heavy vehicular movement, especially in the nights, parking and resting facilities need to be created as well as speed up monitoring by cameras.
Therefore, I urge upon the Government to install cameras as well as create parking place and resting facilities along this stretch and also bring back the shift system for the long distance truck drivers urgently.