Buses without speed limiting devices play with lives, says Bombay high court

The state government on Wednesday promised the Bombay high court that it would conduct special drives to check whether private tourist buses were fitted with speed governors.

The state informed HC that it would not issue fitness certificate to existing vehicles unless they were equipped with speed limiting devices.

A division bench of justices Naresh Patil and Girish Kulkarni said private tourist buses plying without any speed regulation are “playing with people’s lives”.

The observation came after the bench expressed the need to impose the regulation first of all on private tourist buses. “They are the first ones to be fitted with speed governors. Many operators have (luxury) buses with powerful engines and can easily run them at the speed of 140-150 km per hour,” said the bench .

“Most of them ply at night and transport a huge number of passengers,” the judges observed.

The issue of speed governors was brought to the notice of the court by a non-government organisation — Rahat, the Safe Community Foundation — complaining about non-implementation of the April 2015 directive issued by the road ministry.

In response to the PIL, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers stated that all new passenger cars sold for commercial purposes in India were fitted with a speed limiting function or a device — limiting maximum speed of four wheelers to 80 kmph. The bench on Wednesday said expressed the need for speed governors in existing vehicles too.

In his reply, government pleader Abhinandan Vagyani said owners had been asked to install speed limiting devices in their old vehicles. He said exemption was granted to commercial vehicles for some period.