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Wheels Of Death Jeevan had just visited his first-born in a city hospital. Blessed with a child after twelve years of marriage Jeevan was the happiest man. On his way to the bus-stand he was walking by the side of a busy road building castles over the future of his newborn son. Just then a groggy-eyed punch-drunk youth rammed his father’s Opel Astra into Jeevan from behind. The dreams he fancied were shattered along with every bone in his body. In a moment the happiest man was a dead man. Perhaps even stick-in-the-mud fatalists will deny that Jeevan had to die. And yet hundreds of innocent Jeevans are lost every year on the roads of this tiny state. Today nobody out on the roads is safe. Getting out and getting back home is something that can no more be taken for granted. The casualties are so high. About 250 people are killed and 2500 are injured every year. Every 36 hours one person dies from an accident. There is an accident every four hours in Goa. For once the statistics do not mislead. Everything said, public safety remains a non-issue. If anything, the authorities are extolling the virtues of personal safety. Their logic, which is conveniently limited to two-wheelers, is simple. If you want to secure your skull in one piece wear a helmet. The others, including four-wheeler drivers, commuters and pedestrian Jeevans, can go straight to hell via the highway. As more and more lives are lost in rapid succession on the roads one is left wondering if there are any laws at all to check these unnecessary and avoidable deaths and maiming. I happen to have the 1984 edition of Indian Penal Code (IPC) of India which I had bought for Rs. 10/- on a footpath in Bombay. I checked for the charges. Section 304A carries a maximum term of two years or with fine or with both for a rash and negligent act causing death but without intention to cause death. And the fine of Rs 2000/- is no more than a light slap on the wallet. To escape conviction for culpable homicide which carries a 10 year term under section 304, it is often the argument of defence counsels that if a person is drunk he is not in command of his senses, so how does he know he will kill someone? And what does the law have to say about drunk driving? Never mind. I find the IPC boring. If my knowledge serves me right the breath-analyzer reports are not admissible in a court. To formally book a drunk driver the police have to take him for a blood test. And as everybody knows the police would rather prefer to take a few extra rupees home than take an offender for a blood test unless he is not the obliging type. It is common knowledge that the deadly cocktail of alcohol and speed has caused innumerable deaths. If the authorities expect to take drunken driving seriously then they should initiate necessary amendments to the hopelessly antiquated laws to make drunken driving a serious offence punishable with a life term or death sentence -- exactly what they give to their innocent victims. However mere changing of laws won’t help. What is even more vital is imbibing a sense of duty and social well being in our corrupt police force. Otherwise our police will handle the cases as they always do; a chance to make a quick buck. Steep laws will only go to facilitate their get-rich-fast drive. Yet it would not be fair to exclusively blame the cops for the malady of road deaths. The affluent parents are often the real culprits. The children pay the price for their parents’ indulgence. The school going teenager zooms off in a Mitsubishi Lancer on an evening drive. Of course he has money, loads of it, for a celebration of life. It is as if their parents want to announce to the world: “Look, we are the rich and life is one big celebration.” We are impressed and hope you shall not have the ignominy of seeing your kid as dead meat or comatose vegetable. But there is more to it than drunk driving. Some accidents are beyond the control of even sober drivers. Waterlogged potholes, the size of craters, become death traps when a normal rain turns into a flood for unsuspecting two-wheeler riders. You try to miss a pothole and is knocked from behind. Lucky if you survive. If not mince meat. The roads are too narrow and in unmotorable condition, roadsides are dug up with ditches left unmarked, streetlights don’t work, road signs are missing and the corner traffic police is busy emptying a Gutka (tobacco) packet in his mouth. The dead-to-the-world civic authorities are as much responsible for road deaths and need to be made accountable for the pathetic condition of roads in the state. As things stand, it will take another 100 summers before our slumbering authorities wake up. Today public safety is a virtual non-issue. Tomorrow you could end up as another Jeevan lost on the deadly roads of once-beautiful Goa. Your choice is clear: Beware or be dead. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com