NEAR MISSES

While I was working with a steel plant, we had to report “near misses” every day. In the morning, all HODs would go over the events of the previous day and we had to submit our near miss observations. It would initiate a process to avoid such accidents.

 

Let us come to the Indian roads for discussion’s sake, where every road is dug up with no markings.

 

Traffic is terrible. Road sense is totally missing. Road rage is at its extremes. Driving on the wrong side is a birthright. Blaring horns and flashing lights are there to flaunt. Meandering is routine. Helmet gives a headache. Traffic lights are for show. Pedestrian crossings! What pedestrian crossing? The list is endless. Yet the traffic moves.

 

Traffic police are seen occasionally checking vehicles which have other state numbers. “Ek Chalan to banta hai, because you padharoed mhare desh”. They sit and watch traffic snarls all day but do not move their butt an inch. The sabzi wala/fruit wala have to offer their wares to the “deity of the road”.

 

If there is a VVIP visit, they come into action. Suddenly, you hear whistles blowing and hand signaling being done. Barriers are rolled to slow down traffic. At night, the barriers are put up without warning and do not have reflectors. Near misses/accidents happen trying to avoid them.

 

I love the “wrong siders”. It could be a two-wheeler with three people or pick up carrying an overloaded consignment. They flash their lights to blind you and blink their indicators as if telling you to avoid them and not vice versa.

 

Potholes are automatic speed controllers. Traffic cones are nowhere to be seen. A ‘U turn’ can be taken on a highway at will. Dividers on the highway can be breached for shortcuts. If by chance a ‘daru ka theka’ is spotted, a truck can be parked in the middle of the road to buy “one for the road”. Liquor is available freely ‘under the shutter’ even after curfew hours, mind you, with chakhna and ice, under the strict vigil of the night police highway patrol.

 

I was lucky today. Not once but thrice. I wish the common citizen has powers to report near misses to a traffic control center and action is taken to bring culprits to book.

 

I hadn’t driven my “Thunderbird” for some time. The sky was overcast and rain was imminent. Weather was just fantastic for a drive.

 

Close to home, a new flyover is coming up and they have dug up the road on both sides. The grooves which have been cut in the road to resurface it are a nightmare for two wheelers. Loose gravel puts you off balance. I felt the bike going wobbly. I halted to check if there was a flat tire. Loose debris from the ongoing work was the culprit.

 

The road where they are erecting pillars for the bridge of the flyover has been barricaded with concrete blocks. You are blind and cannot see if someone suddenly sneaks in through the gaps. There are no traffic marshals. I missed a two-wheeler, thanks to my reduced speed. The apology which I got was a teasing giggle.

 

On my return trip, there are four ways to cut across to our colony. One, is to come to the wrong side from the bridge under construction I mentioned. Most people do it.

 

Second is to jump across the divider near the colony where people have removed/placed stones for two-wheelers to cross over. We have had fatal accidents but people forget fast. The biggest hazard is the ‘fodder stall’ on the highway. Cattle appear out of nowhere. They have the right of way. We have had fatalities of both cattle and mankind but no one cares.

 

The third is under the bridge on river Jojri. It is safe but the road springs of your car/bike get tested with the roll, pitch and yaw you undergo while traversing the improvised underpass.

 

I prefer to take the fourth, which is a place earmarked for a U turn. One has to go two kilometers extra but never mind. However, in Marwar, saving that much fuel makes you a crorepati.

 

With my right indicator on, I drifted from the highway to the U turn spot. I waited for a clear window. Just then a fully loaded pickup truck cut sharply across infront of me at full clip.

 

Then I heard a loud screeching of brakes and saw an oil tanker go off the road and turn turtle in a flash. A brand-new truck met with its fate because it tried to avoid this pickup truck.  He sewered to the left and toppled twice over.

 

I wanted to help but that truck was being followed by another oil tanker. They halted and rescued the occupants with its wheels in the air. Had this guy sewered to the right, he would have taken me along. I was lucky or else you would have never heard this story.

 

Can there be some method in this madness for near misses? I wonder!!!!!!!!

 

JAI HIND

© ® NOEL ELLIS