Will you reach home safely?

The grim choices that the growing number of road accidents offer are instant death, a shortened life, amputation, hospitalisation and compensation claims; losses that rankle because they need not have happened. The casual approach to road safety is now even more lethal because of corruption, says noted lawyer SRIRAM R. PANCHU.

LAST month, citizens in Chennai attended a memorial service for a 23-year-old who was killed in a road accident on his way home from Bangalore. A promising life cut short, snuffed out was the expression commonly heard as friends of the young man tried to share the grief of his wife, child and parents. A few days later, the papers carried a photograph of a woman, older in years, another victim of a road accident, another "tragic death" - and, no doubt, in her circle of family and friends too there will be mourning and the efforts to console and reconcile themselves to an unjust loss. Increasingly, these scenes are being played out in homes all over the State, as the killer "road accident" becomes a standard fixture in the obituary columns. To this homicidal department, we can attribute a sizable share of instant deaths, shortened lives, maimed limbs, amputation, hospitalisation, motor accident compensation claims, and then the endless coping with the limitations on the potential of life. Tragic - and much more so because for the most part these are losses that need not have been. They are due to a grisly combination of negligence, callousness, failure of licensing systems, lack of enforcement, low official priority - causes avoidable and rectifiable, but which will continue, and continue to haunt us so long as officialdom and citizenry do nothing about them.

Take a few major causes. High on the list is the fact that many drivers simply should not be steering vehicles on public roads. A licence to drive ought to require more than an exhibition of foot and hand coordination over wheel, pedal and gear. Mandatory knowledge of safety rules, good driving codes and practices are jettisoned as driving schools promise licences to all who enroll, and motor vehicle inspectors deliver on promise. A casual approach to safety is bad enough, but is lethal when joined by corruption.

It could be reversed. Subject drivers who drive rashly and are involved in accidents to proper tests, and if they fail, find out which school enrolled them and which inspector certified them. Conduct random tests for the same purpose and crack down on erring driving schools and officials; both ought to be and, in law, are responsible for putting people on the road who are a menace to everyone else on public thoroughfares. And failed responsibility carries a liability, the first law of governance. Carry out similar tests for vehicles which ought to be in scrap yards, instead of plying on the roads.

And what happens to those drivers charged for rash driving? Bail is granted quickly, easiest if you are the driver of a government vehicle. Even where death has been caused, a plea of guilty invites a fine of a few thousand rupees. It is a pity the law's punitive amounts are not benchmarked for rises in inflation. And greater cause for reflection when offenders walk away, nay drive away, after paying this nominal amount.

Somewhat more imaginative methods would pay dividends in increased safety. Make such people go through a compulsory re- training and education programme (more often than not, it will be for the first time, so the prefix "re" may not be accurate). Then subject them to a rigorous re-examination of driving skills and road safety practices. Cancel licences of serious or repeat offenders. If they try to get around this by just queuing up for a new licence, or drive anyway without one, legislate mandatory substantive imprisonment. Expose them to the consequences of rash driving - compulsory visits to orthopaedic wards and trauma care hospitals, and listening to accounts of the lives of survivors and bereaved families are powerful re-education tools. A county in the United States made those causing death by rash driving spend a night in the city morgue with the bodies of accident victims; gruesome, yes, but apparently a good contemplative practice to avoid repetition.

A brief mention of an endangered species, the pedestrian on our roads. Elsewhere the safest, and here the most at risk. Pavements abound with obstructions from electricity transformers to bunk shops, not to mention gaping holes. As if aware of these deficiencies, in some areas pavements are done away with altogether. There is an irony of severity when fly-overs reduce to nothingness the pavements on which the ordinary walk. Walking alongside roads is a risk, but worse is trying to cross them. The zebra crossing has lost all meaning; stopping at one may just result in an overtaking car hitting the trusting pedestrian.

And a mention of our protected species. Drivers of State Transport buses committing road violations get kid-glove treatment, so why expect them to drive better? Autorickshaws are notorious for bad driving practices; every year the police announce a campaign to deal with them, and annually beat the retreat. Leading the competition for the misbehaviour on roads award is, sadly enough, a class from whom one has the right to expect the best practices - vehicles carrying our public men, and women, who make the laws, administer them, and interpret them. What ccan be worse than the signals sent about the lowliness of traffic safety rules than seeing them being broken, daily and routinely, by minister, judge, bureaucrat and police officer.

And that raises another question - who is responsible, and accountable, for our safety on the roads? For leaving potholes to trap the scooterist? For failing to clean up the act in the motor vehicles offices? For leaving highways free of speed and safe driving checks? For exposing pedestrians, including young children and the elderly, to the line of fast moving traffic? For rising statistics of accidents?

Death is a stalker on every journey, be it the city road, or the highway. Everyday we see umpteen instances of rash, negligent, callous, unsafe driving; yet one does not see police action to detect and deter. What has happened to the sight of those who must be vigilant?

It is going to need far more than the annual safety day, slogans of defensive driving, insurance policies or the creation of highway trauma care facilities to reverse the trend. We need to look at preventing accidents by focussing on driver quality and education, creating efficient detection and deterrence methods, and driving home the point that safety is not negotiable. Make road safety the charge of a special body, and vest it with powers and personnel. Call upon responsible citizen groups to assist by reporting violations, setting up testing and re-education centres and so forth. If the Government gets its act together and is serious, it can expect a positive response from public organisations directly connected with road safety, and other citizen groups and individuals, including those who would like to see that the tragedy in their lives is not repeated in other homes.

The writer is Senior Advocate at the Madras High Court, and Adviser to the Consumer Action Group, Chennai.

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