Vehicles To Keep Headlights On During Day: Directs Jharkhand Government

Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Wednesday directed that vehicles plying in the state should keep headlights on even during daytime from January, in order to curb road accidents. "In a meeting of Road Safety Council, the Chief Minister directed that the vehicles should have headlights on even during daytime. This will be implemented from rural to urban areas and on the highways," the statement said. Raghubar Das asked officials to bring down the rate of road accidents in one year. To reduce road accidents, he issued several directives, including keeping headlights on during day. He directed that trauma centres be built across the prominent highways where chances of accidents are high.

While the government has not made Auto Headlamp On (AHO) mandatory for cars, the new bikes do get the feature as standard now. That said, a lot of the new cars do come with daytime running lights (DRLs), depending on the variant that serve the purpose of better visiblity during the day. For older cars though, drivers need to switch on the lights for being more visible on the road.

While reviewing road safety, Raghubar Das said there were three main reasons for accidents - people not wearing helmets, drunk driving and high speed. Das asked the officials to make sure that traffic rules are strictly followed in the state and directed that helmets should be mandatory for pillion riders too.

He asked officials to use breath analyser while patrolling the highways and create awareness among drivers of buses and trucks and ask them to remain away from liquor.