Yesterday I learnt two painful lessons.
1. I should not lend a new breed of car to a person used to old model cars.
2. I should wear seat belt even if the ride is just for 500 mtrs near my home and even if I am just guiding the driver.
I have a broken wrist and typing with my left hand.
To be or not to be – confusion carries on. To wear or not to wear. A confusion compounded by shifting stance of the government and lethargic attitude of traffic police. It is a wonder that such a life saving accessory is to be forced on by law! Rather than getting into what the police or government should do it is always my argument that our safety depends first on our action or inaction. So here are some observations and suggestions.
Let us take the helmet first. It is a personal thing. Not one size fits all accessory. It should not be too tight or too loose. You get head aches in the first case and neck sprain in the second. The strap should always be worn tight but not too tight. Take time when you buy a helmet.
Wear one you fancy (of course you won’t fancy one if you are buying just to beat the law) and move around the shop (unless you are buying from the platform, which is not recommended as the law requires an ISI certified one) for atleast 15 seconds to get the feel and fit. With the strap on of course. Too tight or too loose, reject. Find a sung fit, maybe a little tighter which will ease out after some days and become comfortable. The line of the visor should be just above your eye brow and if you grasp the jaw protection and the top of the helmet and move it upwards there should not be much movement. This way you can select the best helmet for you and by wearing it with the strap on you can be assured that it will not fly away in the event of an accident.
Now for the actual scenario on road. Read the rest of this entry »
My friend entered office totally shaken. Just 10 minutes back she witnessed an accident involving a young student and a bus. First reaction – ‘blame the bus’! But the fault was with the girl.
The girl on a two wheeler cut across the road diagonally in the path of the bus and was hit by it but not run over. Then how did she die?
She was wearing a helmet! Then how did she die?
She was not wearing the strap of the helmet. The bus hit her and she fell down. Her head hit the road as the helmet flew off in the impact of the bus.
Crossing the road recklessly and not strapping the helmet properly has resulted in loss of a young life on an auspicious day(Pongal/Shankaranthi).
My friend witnessed something else and was appreciative. The traffic policeman nearby borrowed a cloth from one of the passengers and covered the girl as her blouse was torn in the accident.
But my reaction was it is the traffic policeman’s fault that she died. If only the traffic police had regularly implemented the road rules and booked any offender this wouldn’t have happened. Neither reckless crossing nor helmet for rule sake would have happened. The girl would be alive now.
I feel I am cynical, or am I?
Most of our RWH structures are namesake structures which will not hold water. Set up to fool the government knowing well that there will not be any inspection and even if there is one it is easy to get approval otherwise.
We find it a difficult task to segregate wastes into organic and non-organic as the corporation wanted us to do and here too the short comings are not followed up on.
It is easy for us to dispose our waste including plastic covers into storm water drains as rains in Chennai are a rare occurrence!
Come a little rain…our compound floods due to namesake RWH structure…we direct the RWH tubes towards the street…street floods…we break the storm water drain cover to direct the floods…they are blocked by our own waste thrown earlier…street floods…EB cuts off electricity…our movement, day to day activities curtailed…cremations postponed…sick left to their fate…
WE BLAME THE GOVERNMENT!
Let us see the positives…we and our children got genuine excuse to avoid office/school…we got more time to interact as there was no TV…not many vehicles on road so less pollution…
I went on air through Chennai Life FM once again(!) on our favourite topic ‘killer roads of chennai’. Nowadays every one seem to be taking great interest in our roads;if only people who can do really some thing also do so!
Actually I was called on phone to answer a couple of questions on traffic in chennai a few months back which featured Shri Traffic Ramasamy, a news paper reporter and Shri Sunil Kumar, Traffic commissioner. Listening to his interview in that programme spurred me on to have a page devoted to accidents in chennai in my web page. A person with a good heart and ideas but, as they say, with bad masters!
Political will is the need of the hour but that seems like a far fetched dream in this age of ‘vote banks’.
By the way today also he came on air and replied to questions posed by Bhavana(who referred to me only as ‘GANESHAN’ than ganesh though I corrected her once – then What is in a name…) the hostess of the show and sounded optimistic. He did not say anything about the CCTP website that should have been rolled out in August itself. One thing is certain. If you listen to government officials for some time you are sure to become cynical.
One surprising call received in the show was complaining about footpaths provided in a street which hinder vehicle movement! Either the street is narrow and foot paths on both sides make it narrower or the street is wide and the foot paths are also so with the same result. There is one other possibility and that is ‘public parking’ by the residents of the street or parking by people coming to commercial establishments nearby. Of course it is also possible that the street may be a short cut to some busy road coupled with heavy vehicle movement.
Now there is a statistics that says that 3/4ths of accidents happen due to traffic congestion and only the rest are due to violation of rules!
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