Commuting to work by road in a city like Delhi is a daunting task. I remember the times when I’d get up at 6:00 am to catch a bus. Back in those days, I used to be a nonchalant college student. I used to board the bus at 7:00 AM in order to reach college by 8:00 AM. The journey felt more like a pilgrimage. Traffic congestion has been a pressing issue across all metropolitan cities for quite some time now. I remember getting stuck near the Delhi Cantonment for close to an hour back in 2013. It was late October and Diwali, India’s premier festival, was just around the corner. The excitement was at its peak and so was the congestion. Nothing changed when I completed my graduation and went to the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC). The Institute was located near the East Gate of the Jawaharlal Nehru University. There’s a busy two-way road just outside the college’s main entrance gate, which has witnessed quite a few accidents wherein students have suffered serious injuries.
A lot has already been spoken and written about road safety. Every single day, we come across newspaper reports throwing light on countless cases of road rage. Recently, a road rage case came to light wherein an auto driver suffered as many as 19 stitches after being attacked by two motorcyclists near Chandigarh’s Hallo Majra. The 43-year-old auto driver was beaten up after he had refused to move his auto forward after the light had turned red.
Another such case showed its face in Delhi’s Samaypur Badli area. A man was reportedly hit with a spade after an argument broke out. The victim and the accused reportedly started arguing because the victim’s bike was wrongly parked. The accused hurled expletives at the victim after which the situation started heating up. The accused then went to his home and returned with a spade. The victim’s father tried to intervene, but it was too late. The victim, named Gautam, was rushed to the nearby hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. Quite often, I have pondered over the rising number of road accidents in India.
Reports claim that road accidents claimed nearly 1.4 lakh lives in 2017. These are alarming numbers. Back in the days when I was a college student, some of my batch-mates had prepared a campaign asking people to follow basic traffic rules. Now, this might sound kiddish to some, but honestly, not many follow traffic rules while driving. Almost all of us are aware of the various traffic rules in place, and yet we find it hard to prevent accidents. In all fairness, lack of awareness has never been a problem. A severe lack of patience happens to be the actual problem. As children, we were far more patient. Life was nothing but a cakewalk back then and the rat race hadn’t begun.
But, I’ve realised that educational institutions can really spread the awareness around road safety and teach students about the importance of displaying patience for safer journeys on the road.
What Role Can Educational Institutions Play?
First things first, students need to be taught the art of being patient. For a generation that survives on fast food, patience is no less than a sin. Nobody wants to wait. People want to reach their destination at a rate of knots.
Students need to be told that every single thing in life takes its own sweet time. Crashing cars and bikes and jumping red lights does little good. We cannot be crashing our cars and bikes just for the sake of saving a few minutes. This is something that needs to be reiterated over and over again. Also, educating students about accidents would be incomplete without instilling a sense of sensitivity into their minds. Whenever an accident occurs, people can be seen recording it on their smartphones, but how many come forward to help the victims? This simply adds to the sorry state of affairs. Finally, people in India especially, are not aware of the usage of different indicators and handles in their vehicles.
In a country where a lot of driving licenses are bought and not obtained, it is even more difficult to inculcate awareness and knowledge in the rider. It is of paramount importance that people be made aware of all the meanings of lights, and signals and indicators and various other aspects of vehicles. Take for instance, the overtly (and unnecessarily) used high beam in vehicles. Using it wrongly can lead to accidents. And, this education must start in school. Not only should schools conduct sessions and make them aware of the know-hows of vehicles and road safety, they should also teach kids to realize its importance.
The possibility of accidents can never be wiped out entirely, but the number of accidents can be minimized if adequate safety measures are taken. Something as simple as wearing a helmet while riding a bike can help prevent serious head injuries. People need to understand that prevention, in all fairness, is far better than cure.
Featured image for representative purpose only. Featured image source: Sakib Ali/Hindustan Times via Getty Images.
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