We have come to the conclusion that writing homilies about the citizenry's need to behave like law-abiding citizens when on the roads is a complete waste of time. The latest collision in Delhi of a truck and a car that claimed three innocent lives will be gobbled up soon enough by dry statistics. It firms up the national capital's reputation as an unsafe city for motorists. But beyond that, nothing will change. Motorists will continue to flout the laws — whether it be running traffic lights, driving in the wrong lane, or the many other 'small' or 'big' departures from the rulebook.
As Sunday's fatal accident shows — where a dumper truck was coming from the wrong direction — it's well past the point where one can expect Delhi's drivers to care. The mass mentality seems to be: if I can get away with jumping a light, I can get away with an illegal U-turn; which, in turn, makes driving in the wrong lane just a bit of 'risky business'. In other words, the motorist believes that he can get away with anything, the laws of traffic (inconsequential as it is for him) be damned. This sheer disdain for traffic laws and norms has been directly and indirectly encouraged by the police, who by virtue of not displaying any signs of doling out 'graded' punishment, are letting the chalta hai mentality run amok on our streets. A motorist who finds himself not being stopped and booked for breaking a law, say something as 'innocuous' as a time-bound one-way rule, goes on to think that driving in the wrong lane at night when the roads are empty — as it happened with the truck on Sunday — is equally non-offensible.
This apathy from the police must change. And flagging down cars every time there's a 'Traffic Safety Week' — a cosmetic show, if there were one — won't do. Motorists breaking the law, regardless of how 'un-dangerous' it might be, must be taught a lesson. If the police need to be extra proactive to stop pointless accidents in this city, it's time they became extra proactive. It's not the lack of enough traffic police that makes the city's roads a killing field, but the way the police implement the law.
{{/usCountry}}This apathy from the police must change. And flagging down cars every time there's a 'Traffic Safety Week' — a cosmetic show, if there were one — won't do. Motorists breaking the law, regardless of how 'un-dangerous' it might be, must be taught a lesson. If the police need to be extra proactive to stop pointless accidents in this city, it's time they became extra proactive. It's not the lack of enough traffic police that makes the city's roads a killing field, but the way the police implement the law.
{{/usCountry}}