Very soon it would be mandatory for all truck and bus manufacturers to provide their vehicle with a standard anti-lock braking system (ABS). This law would cover all buses with the gross weight of 5 tonnes and trucks having more than 12 tonnes of gross weight. The government is very soon going to notify all major manufacturers to install ABS in their vehicle in the next one year. This would increase the prices by Rs. 20,000 – 50,000/-. ABS is widely available in most passenger cars in India and around 40 percent buyers prefer to go for it even if they need to pay extra.
ABS is an accepted technology that features in many of our personal and family vehicle. So it makes good sense to consider it for heavier vehicle. ABS allows the vehicle to maintain contact with the road surface based on driver’s input while allowing him to brake and steer at the same time. It consists of sensors mounted on the hub of each wheel. The sensor continuously sends the wheel speed information to the ECU and prevents the wheel from locking up and thus avoids uncontrolled skidding.
India has a very bad rate of road accidents in the world. According to statistics, 1.35 lakh people died in 2010 which increased to 1.42 lakhs in 2011. This shows that almost 16 people die every hour. It is a matter of concern that 31 percent of those accidents involve commercial vehicles. The actual number of such deaths may go much higher as most cases of accidents go unregistered. With the current rule becoming mandatory, nearly 45,000 buses and 1.6 lakh trucks would be equipped with this safety feature.
Source – Economic Times