While the focus of attention lately has been on rented vehicles after a spate of accidents that made headlines over tourists involved in rash and negligent driving, speed governors were believed to slow things down and bring respite, given the urgency shown by Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho soon after the tragic mishap at River Mandovi.
However, even as authorities were warming up to introduce a tighter road regime, taxi operators began to feel the heat and pushed the accelerator against the Transport Department. They alleged that those designated to install speed governors were issuing false certificates without undertaking fitment. They also charged that some of these governors were malfunctioning.
The allegations by taxi operators open up a Pandora’s box and raise a host of questions, both, against the authorities as well as the taxi operators. Firstly, the timing of this disclosure is suspicious, indicating that the taxi operators allowed the systemic flaws to continue as long as their interests were not hurt. It is only when the Transport Department began tightening the screws did the taxi operators chose to come out in the open making their intentions quite obvious.
Nonetheless, the allegations made by the taxi operators are serious enough and expose the dark underbelly of a department which is very often charged with compromises and corruption. Issuing fake certificates on speed governors and not running rudimentary checks on the functionality of these instruments smacks of a system that is corroded to the core.
The transport department has to own up to these failures and put its house in order first. It needs to haul up the officers who have allowed the system to rot and made compromises that have eventually contributed to the road tragedies. Road governors and other measures will not work if there is no sincerity in those managing the roads.
Although the move to make speed governors mandatory is positive, issues like fake certificates and malfunctioning speed governors defeat the seriousness that the department is now showing towards road safety. By not enforcing a law that has been standing since 2015 mandating speed governors for all commercial vehicles, including rented cars, the department is only exposing itself to another failure.
On another note, the sudden awakening to slam brakes on rented cars appears miscalculated because these vehicles are engaged in less than 25 per cent of the accident figures. Data for 2023 shows that 52 accidents were registered against rent-a-cabs, 24 against rent-a-bikes and 517 against vehicles from other States. Local Goa-registered vehicles were involved in a whopping 2,800 accidents, around 78 per cent of the total figure.
The data clearly shows that enforcement is chasing the wrong end, when it is obvious that local vehicles are inflicting the major damage. There is no harm in enforcing laws, but authorities should not be trigger-driven. The Mandovi mishap forced the Transport Department to crack the whip on rent-a-cabs, and subsequently, it came to light that the operator of the service did not have a valid permit. This again shows that it's been a free-for-all on and off the roads.
The transport department needs a complete overhaul of its systems if it has to win the confidence of the common citizen who is currently under a cloud of uncertainty on the roads. Mere introduction of speed governors will not help.
