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Asking for Trouble
THE November 23 edition of NT contains two references of women pillion passengers who fell from the two-wheelers they were travelling on. I would hazard a guess that both these women were riding pillion Indian style - sitting sideways with both legs on one side of the two-wheeler. There is nothing illegal about that in India as neither the Motor Vehicles Act nor the Central Vehicles Rules specify as to how the pillion passenger is to be seated. Abroad, however, for example, in the United Kingdom, the Highway Code which contains the rules of the road states, "Pillion passengers MUST sit astride the machine with both feet on the footrests." In the past few years I have personally witnessed, at very close hand, two incidents involving women sitting 'side-saddle' on motorcycles. The first outside Fatorda stadium when the woman slipped off the Enfield Bullet and landed on the road, her head millimeters away from the bumper of a Tempo that performed an excellent emergency stop. The woman in the second incident was not so lucky. She was sitting sideways with her legs crossed and as the motorcycle she was on was passing a parked vehicle, her leg slammed into the parked vehicle and she was flung off the bike. She was fortunate to only suffer a fractured right leg. I still find it slightly amusing that our people blame anything and everything, from the authorities to potholes, but never themselves for the accidents on the roads.
ANTONIO PINTO, Benaulim
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