WEDNESDAY, MAY 08, 2024
A. X. Esmeraldo Gomes
“Human life is precious, don’t cripple it by accidents”. Umpteen similar slogans remain mostly in literary pursuit, without deriving its true meaning in our everyday life. This signifies the absence of ‘safe mind’. A primitive, was not exposed to unsafe acts and unsafe conditions of modern times and hence he/she could perhaps rely on his/her own natural safety instincts and reflexes to some extent, for survival. Today, we cannot ignore that accidents are created and just do not happen. If one still believes that accidents happen, then one has no foolproof measures to prevent it, but only ‘lady luck’ to blame. When we view recent accidents such as overturning of a truck loaded with electricity poles, causing deaths and injuries in Goa, explosion at Beirut chemical storage, airplane tragedy at Kozikode, fire at Vijay Wada Covid Hospital and hundreds of other accidents occurring every day, we realize that we have no overwhelming safety awareness in our routine life.
In the following presentation, an attempt is made to evaluate a safe mind and imbibe safety awareness in our day to day life. It concerns of preventive aspects in common accidents with spin-off ‘insights’ to other topics such as ‘Industrial safety’ or ‘Accident-analysis’. It raises eyebrows on safety knowledge, unsafe conditions, risk analysis and unsafe habits. It aims at freedom from accidents, thus saving the large amounts of compensations, expenditure, disputes and consequent health ailments. In short, utmost safety awareness for all ages is the need of the hour in whatever daily actions we take, may it be new, frequent, routine or sporadic.
Kudos to KTC driver, conductor and local villagers on the Netravali-Saglini (Sanguem) route, who recently cleared boulders from the road. In the same way, if banana peels or slippery materials such as oil etc., or pot – holes, are timely cleared from the pathways or roads, irrespective of tagging the responsibilities, we will say, yes, ‘safety awareness has overcome unsafe conditions’. For a pedestrian, the slogan ‘look before you leap’ shall enrich his presence of mind to negotiate safely the accident prone areas. One should avoid taking risks to walk on a flooded road, due to unpredictable unsafe conditions. In the past, a manhole on a knee - deep flooded road was opened for drainage. It created unsafe condition. A doctor, unknowingly stepped on this hole, fell down and water flow pushed him through the hole into the abyss below. He never reached home. Well/ bore-well without a dyke wall is another unsafe condition commonly seen in the villages, where people, mostly innocent playing children, accidentally fall.
Conceptually, PPE (Personal Protective Equipments), such as face-mask for the protection of Covid-19, safety helmet for two-wheeler rider, safety belt for four-wheeler driver or for those working at high altitudes, safeguard the users from calamities or mishaps. How many of us wear it most willingly or without mandatory rule? Claiming it brings uneasiness, one is happy to dispose it off at the first available opportunity. Road safety warrants safer vehicles and safe road designs. Modern vehicles claim today of utmost protection for safe driving. Yet there are cases, on flooded roads, where cars got stranded due to floods and the occupants died of suffocation. As the flood water raised high, the car battery conked-out leaving its motorized windows inactive and so remained closed. The toughened glass could be broken only with heavy metal, but the tool kit was far back in the ‘boot’. The inflow of furious and torrential waters, threatened life and so car doors had to remain shut. In retrospect, we think now that this tragedy could be avoided by a simple design of providing a ‘manual override’ at least to one widow to open for ventilation. As for the modern roads, the designed is to eliminate road crossings / speed breakers and introduce double or triple - decked flyovers; the middle partitioning walls separates ‘to and fro’ traffic; lateral dyke walls on both the sides, prevent stray animals; parking bays and toilets serve the human needs. Do we have such road designs? Without prejudice, I point out as an example, that a flyover is needed as a contrasting by- pass road at Goa, Verna plateau from Verna slope, near patrol pump, up to Nuvem, NH- 17, that avoids the present snaking curves, slopes, the three crossings with speed breakers and more than that, it eliminates such deaths that occurred in the past, at these crossings.
How often a lift stops in the middle of the floors in a tall building, due to power supply failure? Those who witnessed, prayed to God in the pitch darkness, ventilation-free cabin and narrated later their experience of hell, perhaps thanking Newton’s third law of motion, as the lift remained hanged till help could arrive or power could be restored. Lifts, necessarily need battery backed emergency lights, apart from stand-by power supplies. How many lifts in Goa have this requirement? Are the regular safety audit and regular preventive maintenance, really done? If so, why its reports are not displayed inside the cabin of every lift? Where is the watchful eye of the regulatory authority?
Safety knowledge along with its practice leads to safe-thoughts. Impart it to the young minds in the school- curriculum as a subject, with thought provoking books and periodic evaluations. These safety oriented school - students will grow tomorrow, to be safety-minded citizens and guardians of safety awareness. Such citizens will generate own, self - lockdowns, and alleviate the functions of the Government in case of pandemics, war and other calamities. Today, in the absence of such a safe mind, we compromise the mandatory rules, such as those of traffic, public smoking, public noise pollution, etc. In India, some States pride themselves that their fines, especially of disobeying traffic rules are the lowermost. Fine does not bring correction, but rehabilitation does!
