DAILY MASSACRE AND MONEY TO BE MADE

A lot of people may have seen others break traffic rules, jumping red light etc.  I see it too but I see a mass murder every day because I live quite close to a school in which children of the well-to-do study.

The office goer doesn’t get to see this. The bureaucrat doesn’t see this, the average policeman also doesn’t see this because this happens at a generally peaceful time of the day. The massaccare of traffic rules happens in the morning at School time. Several other interesting things also happen. I made a tour of various city schools in the morning when the school starts.

The following is the list of traffic rules being broken regularly with impunity, every day by dozens of people  

1.       More than two people on a two wheeler

2.       People without helmets

3.       People coming from the opposite direction and standing frontally in front of other vehicles

4.       People parking almost at the geometric centre of the road

5.       People stopping cars in the fast lane to make children get off on the divider.

6.       People parking vehicles touching the central divider(in the fast lane)

7.       Underage driving

8.       Up to 20 children in on auto/vikram

9.       Up to 20 children in a maruti Van

10.   People on cars and scooters coming into a roundabout at great speed from the wrong side (anti clockwise)

11.   Complete disrespect and callous attitude towards those who follow traffic rules(like poking the front wheel of the scooter in front of a car and stopping him when he is in the right)

12.   Taking a U turn within a lane

13.   Taking large wheeled cars over the divider and making a U turn

14.   Private cars being used as school vans

15.   Un-authorized LPG kits in school vans

16.   Men Wearing ugly night-suits and rubber chappals, Women wearing baggy see through night wear and looking sleep deprived and driving unwashed cars in your face (OK  !! that is not a traffic violation but it seems like a violation of some rule or the other)

The first interesting thing is that everybody who breaks traffic rules is doing it in the presence of their own children therefore setting up a bad example. Every child who has been brought to school by mom or dad everyday on a scooter driven on the wrong side and with no helmet on head thinks that it is Ok to do this.

The other very interesting thing about the rule breakers is that when they are nearly going to kill themselves by getting run over by a truck, they look so self absorbed. They are completely oblivious to the truck driver who is shouting expletives, If you are driving a car and you have braked hard to avoid killing a scooterist who just jumped in front of you with two Kindergarten kids as pillion riders, they wont even look at you. There is no question of admitting mistake and saying sorry. They just move on as if stopping you by surprise was a normal thing to do.

The other important part of the show are the starers.  A man comes to drop two children one big and one small, and school for the small child begins 20 minutes after. These guys/women stand and stare at the crowd with a small child in tow, they probably know every body’s face by now. They complete the picture in one sense. The traffic is like a circus and they are the audience.

Usually It ought to be a pleasant sight to see young children, with their fresh faces and smart uniforms, being dropped to school by their loving parents but our lack of civic sense makes the school gate look like a fish market with lots of near accidents,  vehicles parked in all odd directions and lots of people honking, shouting and losing their tempers.

If the Government sat one traffic cop and one magistrate everyday in front of Dehradun schools by rotation, they could fill up one full hundred page challan book every day.  There is a lot of money to be made there.

I have one strange request though. If the traffic police does go to the schools to challan some people, they should fine them Rs Rs 110, instead of the regular Rs 100 because with the additional Rs 10 they should take a picture of the traffic violation being made . They should then print the picture and ask the school management to pin up on the main notice board.

Param Jigyasu
(published in Garhwal Post on the 30th august2012)