The Hindu : New Delhi News : Safe driving is sane driving

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 15, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

Safe driving is sane driving

Incidents of dangerous and drunken driving are commonplace on the Capital's roads, says Devesh K. Pandey

Monday night's road accident in which a Maruti Esteem car driven by an allegedly inebriated bank executive mowed down a Delhi Police constable at Hauz Khas in South Delhi is a gruesome reminder of the fact that no matter what punitive action the police take against drunken and dangerous driving, the situation on the road will not improve till motorists realise that safe driving is not only in their interest but also that of other road users.

In several ways the incident is similar to the sensational BMW case in 1999 in which six persons were run over by the over-speeding vehicle with its occupants allegedly in an inebriated state. While in Monday's incident the erring driver was immediately taken into police custody, in the BMW case the accused had fled from the scene. But in both cases precious lives were lost.

Such incidents of dangerous and drunken driving are commonplace on the Capital's roads. The police carry out "special drives" every now and then to check such traffic rule violators, but these have not been of much help other than raising revenue collection. "Traffic police personnel equipped with alcometers are deployed at many places during the operation to check drunken driving. But such exercises will have an impact only when commuters undergo a transformation and learnt how to drive safely," said a traffic police officer.

Interestingly, almost everyone realises that the major reason behind such accidents is a growing penchant among today's youth for "adventure". On several occasions they have been spotted turning the Capital roads into racetracks at night. While most survive, some get killed or end up killing other road-users. In a case reported about three years ago, three young men on their way back from a party were killed after their Baleno collided with an Ambassador car on Prithviraj Road. The Baleno was zooming at over 100 km per hour and all the occupants were allegedly drunk.

In another case this January, a 22-year-old woman was killed and two of her friends were injured when a Cielo car they were travelling in rammed into a tree at Chanakyapuri in New Delhi. The driver was allegedly drunk. "Not only the common man but even policemen become victims of such accidents. We have lost 10 policemen in the past six months. As a result we have now asked traffic personnel on night duty to stay away from speeding vehicles and intercept them by erecting barricades," said the police officer. Several police officers feel that their job is not to do "moral policing" but just to increase awareness among motorists about safe driving and prosecute those who violate the law. Also, they believe that no amount of prosecution would make a marked difference until and unless motorists themselves decide to put brakes on drunken and reckless driving.

For all that, there is no getting away from the widely shared public opinion in the Capital that about the only thing the traffic police are interested in is collecting "fines" from traffic offenders. You see so many teams of traffic cops lurking around furtively short distances away from busy road crossings and roundabouts, ready to swoop down upon any motorists violating the traffic signals and collect the fine or "chai-pani" money. If instead they stood right there at the traffic signal, there won't be any violations in the first place. But then who would pocket all that money?

Things are much worse at night. Even as early as 10-30 p.m. or 11 you don't find a single traffic police man at the busiest of crossings like the ITO, Laxmi Nagar or Pragati Maidan, what to talk of the not so busy crossings. The result is a free-for-all for the traffic law violators who speed past the red light with impunity, killing or injuring anyone in the way. The bitter irony is that the presence of even a single traffic police constable or PCR at each of these and other crossings all over town would ensure that the traffic signals are observed and reckless violations prevented.

It is high time the traffic police went about doing their elementary job of manning the traffic posts day and night rather than go about making money during day and retire to the barracks at night.

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