Year after year, the traffic department of the Goa police, with much fanfare, announces the Goa Safety Week and, during that period, the visibility of our traffic regulators increases on our roads. This is accompanied by pronouncements with regard to the root causes of accidents and what the police are doing to reduce them. The fact that such exercises by the traffic police have not resulted in any visible improvement is evidenced by the fact that Goa’s roads are known far and wide as one of the worst ‘killing fields’ amongst all the roads in India. The reasons generally given by the Goa Police as being the main cause of deaths on the road is drunk driving and over speeding. This writer has seen no mention of the other causes of death such as by freely roaming cattle and other animals, nor those caused by stationary vehicles parked on highways and other roads without any warning signs, nor by vehicles moving in the wrong direction, etc.
Any observer, who is conscious of the correct (and legal) way of driving, will not have failed to notice the following:
A) That most two-wheelers move in the wrong and prohibited direction whenever there is a turn to be taken which is located on the other side of the direction of the said vehicle (this takes place sometimes even 100 of metres before the turn);
B) Though helmets are obligatory for the rider of a two-wheeler for his/her protection, it is a very common sight to see a child being carried in front of the rider whether on a scooter (standing) or (seated) on a motorcycle, thus making a mockery of that particular rule;
C) In continuation of the above, it is to be noted that the law mandates that there can be only one pillion rider yet, very often, one can see two-wheelers with multiple pillion riders.
D) Vehicles without proper mud flaps which result in throwing dirty water on the wind screen of the vehicle right behind thus dangerously reducing visibility.
E) Use of prohibited multi-toned or air horns by four-wheelers and car-horns by motorcycles, etc.
In the past few years, a not too uncommon news item in our dailies is the report of deaths that occurred after two-wheelers crashed into each other. In such reports, however, there is never a mention that one of the vehicles was on the wrong side.
Such accidents have been regularly occurring on blind turns caused by one of the two-wheelers having taken a turn from the wrong side of the road. The same is the case whenever multiple pillion passengers travel on the same bike. Bad habits, which are not curbed by the police, are a direct cause of preventable deaths.
The non-prosecution of owners of cattle that roam freely on the roads is another cause of loss of life. However, there is not a single statistic given out by the traffic police department to indicate as to how many deaths or injuries have been caused by stray cattle and other animals. This writer has not seen any fine ever having been imposed upon drivers who callously drive, with full beams on and sometimes with halogen lights, which result in blinding the driver of the vehicle coming from the opposite direction and have caused many accidents.
No doubt, drunk-driving has been the cause of accidents, so also over speeding. But we do not know the percentage that such accidents occupy in those statistics, as the figures are flubbed by the Traffic Department as evidenced by the fact that not a single death is ascribed to stray animals on the roads, wrong side driving or to multi-pillion riding. There seems to be a conspiracy of silence with regard to these infringements of the law. In Goa nobody respects a zebra crossing and the pedestrian has been left to navigate a busy road on his own where his safety is comparable to the chances one has in a game of Russian roulette, touch and go.
Many of the offences spoken of herein above are taking place right under the noses of the police and yet, no action has been forthcoming from the so-called traffic regulators. Despite the tall pronouncements of the traffic police and their avowed commitment to curb accidents and deaths on our roads, no improvement will take place as long as this department is manned by incompetent and ignorant police personnel who, whilst manning the roads, are seen talking on their mobiles or standing in a most unprofessional manner or staring disinterestedly at the traffic as if it ought to regulate itself and, strangely indeed, most of the time traffic does regulate itself better when the police is not around rather than when it is.
It is common to see, at a crossroad, the traffic police allowing one line of vehicles to advance whilst failing to stop a cross traffic movement and only the attentiveness of the drivers prevents accidents from occurring. The quality of traffic regulation by the traffic police is absolutely pathetic and the laxity in enforcing and disciplining traffic is notorious by its absence. But this attitude hides a more serious problem; that the enforcers are themselves ignorant of the rules of traffic. For instance how many even know that vehicles that are on a roundabout have the right of way over those that are outside that circle or that vehicles on the right of another vehicle have preference on the road or that the pedestrian has the right to cross the road at a zebra crossing and that all vehicles have to stop until that pedestrian has reached the other side of the road?
After seven o’clock one cannot see any traffic police on the roads and many vehicles move without rear lights and with full beams on. Unless the officers in charge of the Traffic Department as well as the RTO first admit their failure in enforcing the law vigorously and strive to improve the efficiency and professionalism of their personnel by proper and sustained education of traffic rules and of the drivers by the use of social media and move towards a zero tolerance policy towards any infringement of the traffic rules, the death rate on our roads is not going to decrease and God forbid, may even increase in the years ahead.
