Road Non-sense

Yesterday while attempting to cross a road, I realized that the cars which were waiting at the red light were revving up their engines even before the light turned green. I had not crossed the road when the desperate drivers started driving ahead as soon as the light had turned green. I was somewhere in the middle of the zebra crossing when a bike rider sped from in front of me. Another SUV whizzed past me from just behind me. The next thing I know, that even before I had reached the pavement, cars were rushing all around me. Luckily I was not run over, but I had cars running al around me. Why is the average Indian driver desperate to speed ahead? I don’t think all of them are running late for work, besides all this happened in the evening, so I guess majority of them were basically driving to home. So why are they always in such a hurry? I drive sometimes, but never with the desperate need to run over a pedestrian.

Another thing that I noticed is, in the last one week, I have witnessed at least one accident every day of the last one week. The accidents vary in intensity, degree of damage, location etc. but yes accidents everyday. I won’t be surprise d if the police brought out a report informing that the number of accidents is on the rise. Well if people are so desperate to rush to their destination, then the accidents are bound to happen.

I carpool with someone from work (well not exactly pool, but depend), anyway, today a reckless bike rider hit the car and rushed away. He didn’t even bother to stop. A few days back a minivan driver driving a commercial vehicle rammed a colleague’s car from the read. The impact was forceful enough to leave a huge dent in the rear of the car of that colleague. Both the car drivers got out of their cars to discuss, but the minivan driver rushed away the moment he got a chance. Of course he had to. He was driving a cab. The driver probably had no intention of sticking around till the police came. My colleague though complained to the police, but is not hopeful for any damage compensation from the cab company. Why should he? The way road accidents and road rage goes in India, the police have too much on their plate to even bother to look for reckless drivers who have only caused minor damages. The police might not bother unless there has been some death in the accident, or may be some hot shot politician/business man with links starts pulling strings. The police won’t bother unless the car is a luxury car and the car owner is adamant about getting the compensation.

The roads of India (even in the best of the cities) do not have proper zebra crossings, proper traffic signals. Forget the surveillance cameras that the Americans and Europeans have along their roads, our roads don’t even have proper directions. It is sad that even after over 60 years of independence and after having among the highest rates of development in the word (we stood next to china at close to 8.5%); we are still laid back, unconcerned about lives of others, at least on road, and will probably be know as the reckless Indians for along time.

Should I have learned the way of road life here? Should I have started driving recklessly like those who almost ran over me yesterday? Earlier I used to drive with good traffic sense, and used to be concerned about other people on the road. But I think I need not anymore.