Vehicle Inspection, Testing, Road Safety and Accident Investigation
The final domain tests how a vehicle is examined for fitness, how road-safety law is enforced, and how an accident scene is measured and reconstructed.
Inspection and testing
- Section 56 read with the CMVR requires periodical inspection of transport vehicles, normally every year at an inspecting authority; Form 22 accompanies initial registration and Form 38 records the certificate of fitness.
- Checks cover service and parking brake performance, headlamp aim and intensity, tyre tread depth (at least 1.6 mm across the central three-quarters for cars), speedometer, horn, mirrors, emission compliance and structural soundness. Brake testers may be roller type or decelerometer based.
Road safety law
- Section 129 (helmet), Section 128 (not more than two persons on a motorcycle), Section 134 (duty after an accident: stop, secure, assist, report), Section 134A (protection of good samaritans), Section 158(6) (police report to the claims tribunal) and Section 166 (claim application) are the working provisions. The golden hour, defined in Section 2(12A), is the one hour after a traumatic injury when prompt care most improves survival.
Investigation
- Document the scene, photographs, positions, debris, and skid marks; record road surface, gradient and weather; then test the vehicle. For skid analysis, v = √(2·μ·g·d), with d in metres and g = 9.81 m/s².
Worked example
A car leaves 20 m of skid marks on dry asphalt, μ = 0.7. v = √(2 × 0.7 × 9.81 × 20) = √274.7 = 16.6 m/s = 16.6 × 3.6 ≈ 59.7 km/h - the minimum speed at impact, before adding reaction distance.
Traps
- Forgetting the ×3.6 conversion from m/s to km/h, or treating skid speed as the pre-braking speed.
- Confusing the one-hour golden hour with a 24- or 48-hour reporting requirement.