hello Mr. Editor,
Yesterday, my friend Amit met with an accident. The conductor of a Public Vehicle (Van) opened the door while the vehicle was still running as a result of which my friend was forced to collide with the open door lead into multiple fractures on his wrist. The story gets worse when the van driver, does not even look at him and jumps red signal to go Scott free. Unfortunately my friend did not get a chance to note the number of the Vehicle. But what good would that have made even if he had done that? Where would he get 2 witnesses who can come with him to Police Station to tell what happened?
Amit works at Motorola and can be reached at 5598615 x3058.
Now the question arises, who should be blamed for this mishap? (Every body needs some body else to blame)
Alarming rate of Corruption:
I feel it is the lack of leadership, direction and commitment in Law Enforcement that encourages people who have an inclination to break rules "actually" break them. Today it is the common man's feeling that breaking very basic rules of traffic can cost him only monetary loss, the loss is even less if he "does" resort to settling it out of the "Receipt Books". Are we moving towards legalizing Corruption?
Lazy Police:
Co-ordinated effort in nabbing traffic violators is next to nil in Bangalore. The walkie-talkie is used only when a VIP arrives in Bangalore. The maximum a cop without receipt book can do when somebody jumps signal is yell at them. Or worse, stop another guy who just crosses the stop line by half a foot, harass him and let his frustration go!! Is there something like "work ethic" in BTP?
Lack of sustained enthusiasm:
The next best thing the cops do now days, is to blame each of their incompetence on congestion and cut the trees on roadside. Obviously trees cannot speak. But we surely can, cant we. If we drive (or made to drive) with 10% more discipline the road automatically looks 10% wider. I would like to bring to your notice the plight of the road between NAL to ISRO. It was planned to widen it eating up half the footpath. The work seems to have stopped at cutting 5 trees. Now the footpath is no longer there. The road is worse than before and school going children have to find their way amongst fast moving motor vehicles. For god's sake, we are talking about children here. This is absolute irresponsibility on part of the Traffic department who initiated the exercise and left it half way.
What are we teaching our kids:
I don't want to be just whining about problems. Below are a few suggestions to all the parents of Bangalore that may help building safe Bangalore 10 years down the road when their children start driving.
- Insist on crossing only on pedestrian crossing, even if it means 100 mts more walk and 10 minutes late to school.
- At least when you are with your kids, do not break even the silliest rules of traffic.
- STOP at red light. I mean DO NOT speed when the light turns yellow to just make it a touch and go with RED light.
- Take time to drop your child to school your self. I don't know how much you can trust the Auto driver to inculcate "Traffic Ethics" in your child. If it is totally impossible, make sure you got a good driver. There are a very few left in Bangalore.
- DO NOT BRIBE THE POLICE IN FRONT OF YOUR CHILD PLEASE....
AND last but the most important
