Between end May and June 11 eminent personalities passed away. Neelam Prabu (Karuna Dev), M F Hussain, Ramesh Kanjle (MNS MLA) and Vimal Kumar Jain from Kumar properties. M F and Neelam Prabhu had completed their inning and passed away out of old age while death of Vimal Jain and Ramesh Janjle was touching. Ramesh died of heart attack and Vimal died in accident. It was tragic accident. He was driving in Mercedes with Mr. Ingle, Mr. Sapre and his driver on Nigdi Bridge while they were driving on right side and at slow speed the speeding tanker coming from opposite direction rammed into their car crossing the divider. The driver of the tanker perhaps had lost control or tanker brakes might have failed. Whatever it is but these people in the car became victim of the tragic death for no mistake of theirs. They must have planned so many things for that day and also for years to come. All vanished into the thin air with their on the spot death. Man proposes and God disposes. Police will report accidental death. The tanker driver will be arrested and perhaps will get released on bail or perhaps will face imprisonment for several years and will come out. But what about the loss that the families of victims have to suffer? Who will compensate?
The rate of accidents is alarming in Pune. It is not only Pune but also allover India now. What are the reasons for this? People see accident, get sentimental, and decide themselves to take care but it all lasts for few days and all again everyone is back to normal chaos. Why?
According to me there are certain reasons for this – indiscipline, attitude, mentality, system and corruptions and loop holes in the systems, no fear of law, delayed court decisions are some of the prominent reasons.
Indiscipline is marinated in our blood. Everyone wants to be privileged one i.e. law is for others and not for me. Others should follow discipline and not me. That is the attitude and mentality. How we behave in public places – just have a look at it and you will realize how we follow civil etiquettes. We throw garbage anywhere, we spit, and we urinate. Dust bins are show pieces kept on road. There are municipality workers and sweepers who are there and paid for cleaning the roads next day morning – I am paying taxes and I am authorized to throw garbage on road. I am free to write anything on wall of public places, buses, theater seats.
Same is the case with traffic. Do we follow discipline? Do we follow traffic lights? Do we follow no entry signs? DO we keep to our lane while driving? Do we have patience during traffic jam or take pride in going right – left – using wring side and push own vehicle ahead of all thinking others waiting are fool and then blocking the traffic coming from the other end? My impression is that traffic signals are mainly for vehicles and not for pedestrians. At certain junctions in Pune I was lost in finding out when should I cross the road as pedestrian? The controlling was all for vehicles. Also many a time in Pune you will see though the signal indicates red light which means STOP the drives see that from other side there is no vehicle coming then they straight away jump the red light – the mentality here is “why unnecessarily wait for red light when there is no traffic at all? We do not follow lane discipline. We overrule no entry signs. In this way we pass on all the indiscipline to our next generation who is brought up with this kind of social culture.
In our culture pedestrians are like shudras and vehicle drivers are like from other casts – car owners like Brahmins, two three wheeler owners like Kshatrias and truck owners like vaishyas. Pedestrians have no value – they should respect and give priority to vehicles – that is the way it is here. What is the case in Europe and other developed countries? There pedestrians are given preference. They have dedicated footpath to walk, dedicated zebra crossing to cross the road and if one is on zebra crossing even fast moving vehicles slow down and even almost stop until one crosses the road. What is situation here in our country? Most of the cities do not have proper footpaths for walking safely; even if they are there they are encroached by vendors. In fact our mentality is to shop on with vendors on foot path because it is "convenient" and "cheap". We do not find any abnormal if vendors occupy footh paths for their business. Zebra crossing is supposed to be area where vehicles are supposed to stop when traffic light is red. If somebody is crossing on zebra zone the vehicle driver instead of slowing down accelerates his vehicle to see that the pedestrian has to rush away either on this or that side of the road.
Do we have right attitude? No – if somebody is overtaking me - first thought that comes to mind is “how come can he do that? Let me speed up my car and take him over” The starts the race. If somebody is crossing the road and traffic light turns green for vehicle and you are in car – will you have patience to wait till that guy crosses or you will keep on honking indicating that pedestrian to get away fast? If somebody overtakes you then how will you behave? Will you keep cool or by hook or crook taking wring side you will start the race and overtake him? How many of the drivers here make use of indicators? How many put right/left turning indicator light on at last moment just before turn? How many simply forget to put off the turning indicator light even after taking that respective turn? How many transport vehicles have tail light on especially at night? If heavy vehicle breaks down at night and is parked on the road how many drives put fluroscent indicators or let some cleaner wait there? They simply put branches of trees or stones to indicate that their broke down vehicle is parked there. Accidents have occured by cars ramming into such vehicles parked along side of the road without proper indicators. AT least they can put their indicator lights on.
What about mentality? Mentality comes from upbringing. When you are driving bicycle then here you have not to obey traffic rules, you can bypass signals, you can go into no entry zone, and you can overtake and go from wrong side. This is because bicycle is vehicle which doesn’t not need more space, no license and will not cause major damage if something goes wrong. Normally person drives bicycle when he is in school. Now same person when he goes to college he gets scooter or motor bike from his parent and starts driving on the road; but he drives with mentality of driving a bicycle. He thinks that taking wrong side is normal; entering no entry zone is okay and same person when he takes car his mentality still remains same and that is what we see people driving cars haphazardly as if they are cycling and not driving.
How about systems? Yes systems are good. Systems are made by people for people and it is people who can make and break the system. If police catches you what will you do? Pay him bribe or ask for tax receipt? What if you hit somebody? Will you go to jail? What if you do not have valid driving license? What if you jump the red light? What if you do not have insurance or PUC paper? Do lose your driving license if you jump red light thrice or you exceed speed limit or you are caught driving with alcohol influence? There is no fear of law. There is always a way out – enough loopholes are there to escape and so come casual approach which is reflected in traffic here. Besides traffic discipline – how many vehicles have PUC done? Is PUC that is done authentic or manipulated? How many old vehicles are on the road? How many are on LPG/ How many on CNG? How many of them use kerosene as fuel by mixing it with Petrol? What is control for diesel pollution? Implementation of laws, rules, regulations and resolutions is very slow. It takes time. Sometimes this is drawback of democratic system that we have.
What is procedure to get driving license? Sometimes you do not have to even go for test drive. Agent gets you driving license at home. Imagine the person taking his bike or car on the road without attending the test at RTO. When the network of agent will get diminished? Why first of all such agent network is needed? Why the system can be more transparent in this regards? What about qualification for driver? Is there any refresher test taken during license renewal? In this country for becoming politician who drives the nation or state there is no qualification required then just imagine what qualification will you need to become driver? The minimum highlight that should be given to new learner must be about safety, traffic discipline, safety of pedestrians, and safety of passengers in car and maintenance of vehicle that he is driving or he is going to drive. Especially heavy vehicles like trucks and trailers must be maintained well to avoid break failure etc. The tendency is to get more business, earn more money and to ignore insurance, maintenance. In holiday seasons I have seen tourist drivers driving cars/ tracks without rest and ultimately risking their own and others lives. In such cases the tour operator must take care to give enough rest to the driver and driver must realize need of rest for his own safety. We do not have good infrastructure, we do not have good footpaths-in Pune now some cycle tracks are built – but it has become a big joke. In Holland I have seen speical cycle tracks and special footpaths. If you are walking on cycle track and cyclist hits you then it is your fault. The cycle tracks there are continuous with dedicated traffic lights and zebra crossing for cycles. Safety of cyclist and pedestrians is most important and is ensured there. Just have a look at cycle tracks in Pune – concept is good but implementation is poor. On that track you will find scooters, motor bike and rikshaw driving, you will see motor bikes parked, even sometimes rikshaw parked. Moreover the tracks are not continuous. There is no safety for cyclist here. Cyclist will be taken for a ride. I remember reporter of PUNE MIRROR making an attempt to move through Pune on a bike and finally he was taken for a ride by the other vehicles to such a extent that he almost brushed death twice and finally gave up his task of biking in Pune. The report was published in PUNE MIRROR with photographs. Here also people mentality plays role. The cycle tracks must be used only for cycles. People must ask corporation to make these tracks continuous and safe so that children and people can go to school work on bicycles which will make life in the city bit comfortable.
But who has to do this change. Of course mentality is other should start first and I will follow later. Let us start by changing with our own attitude first. This change is going to be taking lot of time but at least our next generation – let them learn these discipline, traffic sense and let them follow in years to come. I look forward to traffic here like what I saw in Europe. It is possible. Let us make combined efforts – through social networking, awareness, self-discipline. We do not want tragic accidents to take place. We do not want victims of accidents. We want everybody to safe.
