Delhi and Rash Driving

The locals give the National Capital Region (NCR) a ‘number one’ ranking on most parameters. While it is acceptable for locals to be chauvinists, there are some facts that are overlooked. I have managed to put across a few.

Wait. I am not mentioning the omnipresent power cuts. I am not going to discuss the lack of consideration that people have for others. Not molestation and violence on women. Not the skyrocketing prices. Not the culture (or rather the lack of it?). The unaffordable standard of living is definitely not in my agenda for today.

My topic for today is rash driving and speeding.

With the advances in the field of medicine, the average life expectancy of the Indian has gone up. If these are statistics to be boastful of, the following incidents can challenge the claims.

Blue line buses running over unsuspecting commuters taking refuge in bus shelters are history. Welcome to the age of Tata Nano. Welcome to the NCR, where possessing an automotive vehicle is driven more by the necessity to project one’s socio-economic status and not by the actual need of using it for commuting.

Delhi and NCR have their fair share of flyovers and state-of-art expressways. Fine. Has the traffic eased one bit? No. Check out the North-Western wing of the Golden Quadrilateral (the Delhi – Jaipur NH-8 expressway) and you’ll find the answer yourself. If that is the state of an expressway, one can as well imagine what the traffic in intra-city roads will be like.

I wanted to write about this topic for quite sometime. But I couldn’t get myself to write it down until I saw a speeding car run over a cat yesterday. The driver, I presume was once an anatomy student. He managed to expose the internal organs of the animal. In a world where human beings are given the most scant respect, forget the respect the cat deserved. The debris have still not been cleaned. A few more vehicles ran over it and there is no trace of the remains on the road. The cat is a forgotten entity. And that dead cat is my inspiration.

I have a sincere request to the road transport authorities of the NCR. It does not suffice if you provide commuters with state-of-art roads. It is your duty to educate people to imbibe a sense of driving and take offenders to task. Traffic police must stop valuing people’s lives to the bribe they receive from offenders. Here is a call for social responsibility. My friends, the victim can very well be one from your own family.

With the number of jobs being generated in the Gurgaon and Noida suburbs, the number of commuters between these satellite cities and Delhi is growing by the day. The cab drivers who transport them are the number one culprits. I have been witness to a number of their hits and runs (Mostly stray dogs, One cat, also people on a few occasions). The transport vendors for various companies have to be a lot stricter with their drivers. The companies have a role to play a role in this issue too. They cannot forfeit responsibility once they offer their transport contract to a third party vendor.

The second major offenders are the people who are not fully qualified to take the road. With no offence to anyone in particular, the majority of accidents in the NCR involve women. Just spend a moment watching the number of dented cars that cross the road and you’ll be very sure that 80% of them are driven by women. The RTO officials have to ensure that the driving tests are compulsorily conducted before offering driving licenses. Driving licenses should not be procured by shelling out money without actually appearing for the tests. Similarily, if someone is found to be a repeat offender, their license must be cancelled. Mere levying a fine on them will not suffice.

I am not sure whether the suggestions are practical. But unless they are implemented, I don’t see the situation improving.

Unless the situation improves, be prepared to seek adequate insurance cover. Your turn might soon come.