My Musings on Road Safety

It has been 360 days since I last wrote my diary. A ritual I followed since my marriage in 1987. I have my life history in volumes of diaries and can find out what I have done on most days in the past years. But today, I finally gathered the courage to glance through the diary almost sensing something…
Last year, it was on this day that Aru had visited home from Vellore , sat on our kitchen top and told me about her insecurities on the roads of Vellore..her words were ” Aaiee. baba, my heart comes into my mouth till I reach my destination either the hospital or my hostel. The roads are so so bad!”

At that point we told her to get a car which would be safer. She was hesitant and reluctant because she did not have that much savings. But we told her that we would loan her the money which she could pay us back . This was done solely with the intend to acknowledge the self respect of a young couple who worked hard and did not take the parents help or money for granted.There was a sense of pride to know that both my would be son in law and daughter were both hard working , self respecting children.

The question was about the road …we had seen with our own eyes when we had been to Vellore the conditions of Vellore roads and this particular road which they travelled on from their hostel to CMC.

What happened during the early hours of the 9th of September precisely a week after this conversation was unbelievable and horrendous..the road killed my daughter…

I have not slept since thinking ‘ What if? And ‘ only if…’
There are many ‘ what ifs..and an equal number of only if’…
Through the pangs of guilt, the gut wrenching pain, the nightmares and horrors of the manner in which she died came the realization that this is not fate but our collective doings as irresponsible parents and citizens. We speak for ourselves. The Arundhati Foundation is thus born out of the lessons we learn.
It is not enough that we cry at our do called ‘ fate’ but we also do something to see that such so called incidents of fate are not part of the fate of others.

Today a lot of transport lobbies are coming together to oppose the new Road Safety Bill which is being proposed by the new Government . The Arundhati Foundation is a part of the ‘ COLOURS ‘ initiative where ten road safety organizations have been trying hard to promote the new Road Safety Bill which has been promised and proposed by the GOVERNMENT.
This bill which started as a powerful bill has undergone umpteen revisions to dilute it to such an extent to lose its teeth under the pressure of various lobbies. And now they are trying to further hinder progress calling for a Bandh .

Bangalore has earned the notorious reputation of being one of the cities with the highest number of road accidents and deaths. Yesterday, The Times of India has brought out the heart breaking story of the death of Sunitha Kumar who succumbed to the injuries she sustained on 23rd of August . That day she lost her son Likhith all of nine years, when in an attempt to avoid pot hole at the SRS junction she swerved to the right and her son came under a speeding private bus and died on the spot. ‘ The government has destroyed our family ‘ said her elder sister Sumitra.
The Vellore municipality is responsible for killing my daughter.
Yesterday a 27-year old police constable was killed on the spot when his motorcycle collided with a truck. The truck driver was allegedly in an inebriated condition.

These deaths are merely statistics for the rest of the world and yet, accidents are the latest epidemics to strike our country. Sixteen people die on Indian roads every hour that is equivalent to a jumbo jet crashing everyday

The irresponsibility of people behind the wheel, the care a damn attitude to rules and regulations, the general disrespect to fellow travelers, use of mobiles while driving, drunk driving, the kind of roads and the general apathy of each and everyone of us is responsible for the deaths on our roads.

We need tough laws only because it seems that unless we are punished we never seem to learn. Why is everybody so scared of the laws? Why does every lobby want the laws to be changed? Does that mean we are only thinking of punishment? But why are we thinking of the punishment ? Punishment is only IF and WHEN we violate a rule.Are these people who want to bring the nation to a halt planning to violate the rules?
I hope not. If you follow the laws why do you need to worry?
Why do you need the bandh?