It was just a few days ago. I heard that two young men riding a motorcycle died on the spot in an accident on the main road, about three kilometers away from my house. Those young men must have been about 22 years old. After a little more enquiry from the people around, I came to know that both of them were going to their respective homes from office on the same motorcycle in the evening. Due to a pothole on the way, the motorcycle lost its balance and both of them fell down along with the motorcycle. While falling, both of their feet were beside the road and both of their heads were on the road. After that, a four-wheeler coming from behind crushed both of their heads, due to which both of them died on the spot. I was also surprised to hear that after crushing both of them, the four-wheeler did not stop but went away and after that other vehicles passing by did the same. Many vehicles kept passing over them recklessly for a long time.
Just think about those boys and their family members, what they must have gone through, who must have thought that their son, brother, husband or father has gone to office and will be back home on time. God knows how many calls they must have made on their mobile phones when they got late. But their calls will get a good response only when the person who picked up the phone is safe. Think about what their family members must have gone through when the son left home for office safe and sound in the morning and later did not pick up the phone even when it was very late. And after getting the news somehow, when he came home in that condition, that is, he came home as a dead body.
Many people got scared and shocked after knowing and hearing this, but many people are behaving as if nothing special has happened. This keeps happening all the time. Many people also got to hear such thoughts that what can be done in such cases. The one who has to die, dies anyhow and with any excuse. One cannot say what will happen to whom and when. Well, such thoughts are correct to a large extent but not completely. It is correct to believe that what has happened has happened, whatever bad was to happen has also happened, now what can one do except to have courage.
But will such incidents really stop happening just by expressing such thoughts? Will this matter be more important when someone close or special becomes a victim of such an accident? Should we really learn a lesson from such heart-wrenching incidents and instead of taking precautions and strict steps, shut our mouths and others' mouths thinking what can we do in this. Whoever has to die, dies with some excuse. Who knows what will happen when.
Things which are in the hands of God or nature and we have no control over them, it seems appropriate to say that what can we do except to have courage. But the same God or nature made us human beings and the ability of our brain to think and understand is more than all other living beings. We can think and understand more than anyone else what is going wrong and what is lacking and what is the solution to fulfil it. If we talk about driving, traffic rules, then we also have to understand that God or nature did not give us vehicles by cutting trees and saying come my dear humans, cut trees and drive to your heart's content without worrying about anything. The one who gave us must have developed our brain but now whether we will take the right step or wrong step with that developing brain, the one who gave it has left it to us. We should accept these things that we made asphalt roads by cutting trees and clearing forests. We made different types of vehicles for our need and convenience. We made traffic rules for our convenience and safety. We are the ones who break it, don't know why.
These kinds of accidents raise the question that have we become so busy in the race of money, employment and blind progress that we have forgotten humanity while walking on the road. No one cares if someone lives or dies. Often while travelling on the roads, we see that some animal like cat, squirrel, dog is lying dead under a vehicle. And what is their fault? They do not have a developed brain like us humans. We are destroying their habitats and forests by building buildings and widening roads. After that, if they want to go across the road in search of their food, we will crush them under the vehicle because we cannot drive slowly under the influence of the latest fashion and ego. We do not know what we are in a hurry for. What kind of work and the progress of the country will stop if we follow the traffic rules. We will keep our vehicle under control and reach our destination safely.
It is not that everyone breaks traffic rules and drives fast. But the mentality of most people has become that of breaking rules. Due to such mentality of people, while walking in traffic and keeping rules and safety in mind, it seems that the one who is walking following the rules properly is a fool and is being left behind and the one who is not following the rules is very cool and smart, even if one day he causes a huge loss to his or someone else's life or property due to his such actions.
It has happened to me many times that I am stopped after seeing the red light but the horn of the car is being blown repeatedly from behind saying go ahead or let us go ahead. Many times, getting upset, even when the signal is red, I have to break the rules unwillingly because when everyone is going then what safe environment will I create by standing alone watching the signal. By the way, I try my best not to break the rules, even if it takes a little time but no such incident happens. Many times it has happened that someone wants to cross the road and I stop the vehicle and give him a chance to cross but others are passing behind me blowing the horn very fast and are not giving me a chance to cross the road. I don't know what kind of ego they have at such times that if they stop for a while they will become smaller or lower. Many times it happens with me that while driving I have to cross the road and go to the other side and I try to cross the road by giving signal from my vehicle but it seems that the vehicles coming from behind or in front are either not able to see the person giving the signal or it can also happen that their ego is dominating them that if the person giving the signal crosses the road they will lose. And if in such a case an attempt is made to make them realize this by blowing the horn then it happens that those people are already blowing the horn and on hearing our horn they look at us in anger as if we are committing a crime. What to say about the administration and traffic management? If I say on the basis of my personal experience, it seems that traffic police are either posted at some special places and for some special people only. And even if they are posted somewhere, their aim is to extort money in some way, not to make people follow the rules of traffic or create a safe environment in traffic.
If something is said about the administration today, especially in such cases, then among the common people and our friends, there are people ready to fight with us, who are not in favor of asking questions to the administration and finding faults in any condition, they want to hear blind praises of the administration. Once I was roaming in the city with some friends for some work, when the issue of congestion in the city started to be discussed. I said that these traffic policemen are not seen throughout the year. They are seen only on some occasions in a year. People are careless, but there is a shortcoming in these traffic policemen too. As soon as I said this, that friend came to defense and said aggressively that you have no idea how much work pressure the traffic police have because there is a huge shortage of people. I also wanted to say that the government should start recruitment if there is a shortage but then I thought who wants to get into this long debate about which party's government is right and how wrong it is.
However, it is often seen that there is a huge crowd at a signal or turn and only one or two traffic policemen are deployed to keep an eye on those thousands of people. In such a situation, how many people will they be able to pay attention to and how much. It is also heard that the traffic police have more responsibility and less people to handle the work. After this, when it is said that the government should recruit, then in response it is heard that there is a shortage of money, where will so much money come from. What happens next is that the issue shifts from traffic to the governments or political parties of one's choice, which has no end in sight.
Although there are also arrangements for automatic traffic signals at many places due to which the need for traffic police or manpower is negligible. But there also many people are in a hurry and are in a hurry to break the signals and in this process sometimes there is a fight with the traffic people and sometimes with other people, accidents also happen and there is loss of life and property. It is also seen that the signals get faulty. It is a simple thing that any thing or machine gets faulty and there is a need to repair it on time. When there is a fault in the signal things, it takes a lot of time to repair it. After this, what happens is that at the places where people are following the rules properly after seeing the signal, there negligence starts due to the signal not being in working order and the possibility of accident increases. Here also what to say about the mentality of the people, it is often seen that where the signal does not work, people start driving arbitrarily as if if the signal is not working then they will not have an accident.
It is also worth keeping in mind that if an accident happens and where such accidents happen, most of the people instead of solving the matter start complicating it and the matter reaches to quarrel and fight. Many times it also happens that the person helping gets into trouble. Once something similar happened to me too. That day I was going to my office in the afternoon sitting on my scooty. Ahead of me a married couple was going together on a Bullet motorcycle. After going a little further, an old lady was running frantically to cross the road without looking here and there. She was also looking a little worried. She narrowly escaped colliding with the Bullet going ahead of me. The couple on the Bullet stopped and gave her some advice. She stopped. I, who was coming behind at a speed of about 20 km (I always drive slowly) I was sure that now the old lady has stopped, now she will not cross the road. But she again suddenly started running. I, who was behind her on my scooty, started slowing down the speed of my scooty to save her, started taking the scooty to the other corner and I was making sounds like Oye Oye Oye. But that old lady did not stop and she came to a place and collided with my scooty. She and I fell down after the collision. She fell in front and I fell down along with the scooty. She got up but I was unable to get up because one of my legs had come under the scooty. I was trying a lot but was unable to get up. Then a boy came running and helped me and the scooty to get up. When I got up, my pants were torn near the knee and I had also got scratches. I was also stumbling. And that old lady was also held by some women. However, that old lady did not get any injury or scratch. She was just pushed. It was good that I was driving at a low speed and I usually drive slowly, otherwise I don't know what would have happened.
But I was getting surrounded by the local residents there. Especially that auto driver who himself had come with overloaded passengers. Looking at his auto, it seemed that if the auto moved even a little, it would overturn. That auto driver left his auto and passengers and started moving towards me, speaking something in his native language. Along with this, people were surrounding me from all sides. And I was standing in the middle, stumbling and slowly getting surrounded by everyone. It is also worth noting that the old woman with whom I had the accident and the man and woman accompanying her were not saying anything. Even in that condition, it seemed that the time has come to show my learned self-defense skills. But then a voice came -"Why are you people surrounding him? That woman was about to get hit by my car. He was trying to save her. And you people are surrounding him." My and everyone else's attention went towards that loud and harsh sound. After that everyone stopped wherever they were. I saw that this was the same couple who was riding a Bullet ahead of me and whose Bullet had saved the old woman from getting hit by it. Because of their scolding and speaking the right thing, the matter did not reach to a fight. Looking at that couple, I said -"Thank you Bhaiya, you saved me"
And the matter did not proceed further like this but it does not happen in everyone's case that a good man intervenes and solves the matter.
Some things related to travelling and driving which we all need to understand and keep in mind -
1. Any vehicle is made to transport people and other things from one place to another easily and safely. Therefore, do not make the vehicle an issue of passion, ego, style and looking cool.
2. Avoid buying such vehicles which tempt you to show off style, to look cool, to drive fast, which neither have any average nor can be of any use. Do not choose a vehicle just by looking at its look and style.
3. Some things related to vehicles look good only in films like the hero of the film driving a fast bike, showing his long hair waving in the air while driving the bike, not wearing a helmet, doing dangerous stunts like impressing the heroine by driving a fast bike, driving a bike while singing a song, breaking signals, jumping from the bike or making the bike jump from somewhere etc. Mostly enjoy movies and develop an understanding of which things shown in movies and such things are just for entertainment and which things are really worth adopting. You all are the hero of your life. Your life is very important for your family and friends.
3. Before driving, arrange and use all the necessary things like helmet, and clothes that keep you safe while driving.
4. Do not drive as fast as possible and keep the car in your control. The vehicle is controlled only when it is at low speed.
5. Follow the traffic rules, do not adopt the mentality of breaking them.
6. Question the institutions and government responsible for the matters related to rules and shortcomings. Whether the government is of your choice or not or it may be that the government and institutions are right in their place or are compelled, do not support them or do not advocate. And by doing this, do not increase the debate with those who raise questions.
7. Be cautious in every way while driving because it is not necessary that if you are driving properly then you are completely safe. You can also suffer loss of life and property due to the mistakes of others.
8. Develop a good mindset regarding driving and traffic rules and give first importance to safety.
9. Do not let your happiness, sadness or any other emotion overpower you while driving, be alert.
10. While driving, do not entertain yourself in any way, nor talk to anyone. Neither on the phone, nor with someone sitting with you. Do not talk on the phone at all. If someone calls you while driving, stop your vehicle somewhere aside and talk on the phone, but be careful about your surroundings.
And finally, I would like to say with the hope that after listening or reading this article of mine, people may gain some awareness -
"No matter how new your clothes are, no matter how expensive your vehicle is,
Stay connected with new technology, keep talking about them,
No matter how much you talk, keep developing your mindset
Following traffic rules keeping safety in mind and stay safe"
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