Driver alert: Take a break

 It had been a month since a major accident, and I was visibly shaken and upset when I returned to the driver’s seat again.Of late, I was shocked to see the driver alert activated with a visual display on the digital cockpit. Soon I realised the system had detected that I was starting to lose concentration. Fortunately, the German SUV never gets tired of keeping me awake all the time. It monitors the driver’s behaviour closely, noting any erratic steering wheel movements and lane deviations, so it can judge the moment that one is starting to feel sleepy. It also continually evaluates traffic signals on the roads when one is driving at speeds of more than 65 kmph and works out when it’s time to take a break. It’s indeed a helpful aid to safer driving.

Unfortunately, India’s roads are never safe to drive, and road safety is the worst on record. Driving on the wrong side is common, and motorists even drive in the opposite direction on the National Highways. The pathetic excuses for localities are the maintenance, repair, and never-ending construction work of roads. The other day I witnessed a terrifying moment when I saw a mini truck on the dedicated passing lane (fast lane/overtaking) all of a sudden after a curve and had to deviate left to stop a head-on collision. Luckily, there was no vehicle in the cruise lane (middle lane). People should understand the passing lane rules. It drives me crazy every time I see motorists cruising in the slow-moving vehicle lane (left lane) when I head on the NH-37.

They are extremely dangerous and can lead to incidents. Sudden potholes in the middle of the road, broken roads, or a stretch filled with rubble raise serious safety concerns for commuters. Local authorities construct road humps to check the speed of vehicles, despite the policy of not providing speed breakers on the National Highways. This is undesirable, as the function of the National Highway is to facilitate the movement of traffic and not hinder it. The perilous state of speed breakers can be a source of serious hazards for fast-moving vehicles.

The devastating condition of NH-31 that passes through TMC&H is getting worse every day. It’s a single-lane road with one lane of traffic in each direction. Vehicles on such roads need to be driven carefully, as there is no scope for overtaking. There is virtually no road other than a stretch filled with rubble and giant potholes. With the monsoon set to be active now, how dangerous is it to drive on such roads at night? The road will never be maintained for road-widening projects in the future.

The general public is of the opinion that highway engineers intentionally construct bad roads so that they can get a ‘fat’ road budget year after year. Ironically, most of the Indian roads are bituminous mixes. Water is enemy number one of bitumen, and highway engineers ignore it and use semi-dense or open-graded bituminous mixes in road construction. Despite the knowledge and technical research that dissuade the use of outdated technologies, highway engineers are silent on the subject. Engineering experts opine that only densely graded bituminous mixes should be used for all types of roads. To quote John F. Kennedy, “American roads are good not because America is rich, but because America is rich because American roads are good.”

My NRI medical friend has recently failed a driving test at DTO Kamrup (M) while he drives all through the United States for quite a while. It’s no secret that India’s roads are mayhem. Drivers ignore lane markings; traffic lights are considered merely advisory, and the main safety measure is the unremitting blasting of the horn. City street vendors eat up half the road space, and people drive on the wrong side on some older highways; however, safety measures take time to catch up.

It was the morning rush hour. I could hear crashing in the windscreen before I could see anything through my eyelids while I still gripped the steering wheel so tight. All of a sudden, it jerked to a halt. I violently hit a rear-end collision as the front car stopped suddenly to let pedestrians weave through GS Road. Yes, I experienced an accident in a car crash that caused damage to three cars. Fortunately, nobody was seriously injured. Thank God I wasn’t hurt, as the safety belt was active in my old car and miraculously emerged, like after a Formula 1 crash.

Car crashes are terrifying, inconvenient, costly, and painful. Often, people walk away injured, without usable transportation, and in financial peril. Experiencing an auto accident is almost always an extremely traumatic event, and it is relatively easy to make mistakes following a crash. From road lines to yellow lines on the road, each symbol inscribed on the tarmac holds a distinct significance, dictating the ebb and flow of traffic and ensuring safety. So fasten your seat belts, and remember, safe driving starts with you! So did my new Skoda alert with a warning: “Taking your eyes off the road too long or too often could cause a crash. Focus your attention on driving”.