"Speeding train rams autorickshaw and kills 20" screams the headlines in a news despatch today about an unfortunate accident in Bihar.
This is India's most undisciplined state with Goa trailing just behind with full intent to overtake. Accidents will happen anywhere, but consider the aspects of this one, unique elsewhere but not unique in India. 1. It happened at a manned railway crossing. Defeats the meaning of "manned". 2. There were 20 persons of one family travelling in the single vehicle. 3. People at the scene raised a row, demanding 2 lakh rupees for every person killed or injured. 4. The picture taken was "representational". My take: Either the gate was closed and the rickshaw just bypassed it (you see it in Goa all the time) or the gatekeeper went away for a more pressing need than his job. There is no limit to vehicle seating, standing or hanging. More the merrier. Never lose a chance to demand money, especially from the sarkar. To hell with whose fault it is, finding causes and preventing such accidents happening in the future. Lots more lives where those 20 came from. The Indian media are so bored with reporting, they don't send photographers to the scenes anymore. Take a file or internet picture and dub it "representational". Roland. Sent from Samsung Mobile
