During my last visit to Chennai, I was travelling in a car on the GST Road. My daughter pointed out to me white circles with 304-A on the road. She explained that it means that there was a fatal accident at that spot. During our half-an-hour ride, I could see a lot of white circles with 304-A inside. It was very painful.
Then I looked up with the help of Google to know what exactly 304-A means. At Vakil No.1.com I found the rule. Section 304-A, Indian Penal Code - Causing death by negligence, reads: "Whoever causes the death of any person by any rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both".
I came across this disturbing statistics in The Times of India, Chennai, of October 23, 2008. In the year 2007 alone, more than 1.3 lakh people died on Indian roads!
I do not know how to drive gear vehicles. I have only an without gear moped. I have never bothered to learn driving gear vehicles. Whenever I ride on the pillion with somebody in Chennai, I keep praying all the time. The journey seems so hazardous. So I try to avoid travelling by two-wheelers in Chennai. But the Chennaiaites don't seem to worry. Men, women and children they drive two-wheelers and four-wheelers casually and nobody seems worried. They overtake on the left and the right. I have seen two-wheelers threading their way between buses and lorries without a care. God protect them!
When I read about fatal accidents, especially those involving youngsters, it pains me greatly. All joy and promise nipped in the bud. I just can't even imagine the agony of the parents who lose their beloved children in such accidents.
I could see girls driving two-wheelers at breakneck speed with gay abandon. In one way, I am happy. They are so fearless and bold. Kudos to them. Probably if you are born and brought up in Chennai and not a rural pumpkin like me, you get it easily and naturally.
However, one thing is clear. Our roads, especially city roads, are totally inadequate to cope with the alarming traffic congestion and exponential increase of traffic; they need to be widened, rules strictly enforced and offenders punished. More flyovers, more subways, more one-way roads and above all educating the public about road safety measures are needed.
"DRIVING OUR YOUTH SAFELY INTO THE FUTURE" from YoungDriverAwareness.com:
Detailed Wikipedia articles on "ROAD TRAFFIC SAFETY":
Detailed Wikipedia articles on 'ROAD ACCIDENTS":
"HIGHWAY RESCUE PROJECT" from Lifeline Foundation:
"PROGRESS IN ROAD SAFETY SLOWING DOWN" from IRTAD portal (International Road Safety Data and Analysis Group":
"BASIC ROAD STATISTICS" from the Dept of Road Transport & Highways, Govt of India:
"TRANSPORT IN INDIA" from International Transport Statistics Database under the iRAP (International Road Assessment Program) funded by the FIA Foundation for the Automobile and Society:
ASIRT (Association for Safe International Road Travel's) portal:
"ACTING TOGETHER FOR SAFER ROADS" from UNECE (United Nations Economic Commssion for Europe):
"TRAFFIC SAFETY CENTER" of the University of California, Berkeley:
Grateful thanks to Vakil No.1.com, YoungDriverAwarreness.com, Lifeline Foundation, IRTAD, Dept of Road Transport & Highways, Govt of India; FIA Foundation for the Automobile and Society; ASIRT, UNECE, University of California and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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