<div>Jahnvi desai looked up as the door opened and a harried, bloodied Gaurav Rana walked in. “You look bad,” she said. “ What happened?”<br /><strong>Gaurav:</strong> ...a truck driver I tried to save. This country is a challenge ... That entire Kashiram Dhoni Road is riddled with potholes. I drive at snail’s pace, but the rest of the world flies....!<br /><br />Gaurav, who worked with Jahnvi at Sylos Partners, a company law advisory firm, had been involved in an accident as an unwilling bystander. “There was a truck and a cyclist before me,” he began, “and innumerable potholes. At one point, the cyclist got ahead of the truck and instantly skid on a pothole, fell and was hit by the truck! The truck driver ran to help the boy but the people on the street grabbed him and beat him to pulp.... “<br /><br />Gaurav knew it was no fault of the truck driver. Stopping his car, he ran and wormed his way into the crowd and ended up taking a lot of the blows... “How is it his fault?” he shouted at the angry crowd. “The truck driver remained in his lane all through. That cyclist was weaving between lanes and skidded on the pothole. How is it anybody’s fault?”<br /><strong>Onlooker:</strong> But he should have seen!<br /><strong>Gaurav: </strong>Seen what? Seen the pothole and called out to the cyclist and told him to watch out? How about that the cyclist took chances riding in the lane for heavy vehicles, whereas he should have stuck to the cyclists’ lane? Or, how about you go find your local corporator and ask him why the road in his jurisdiction has potholes for two months? For how many years have cows been sitting in the middle of the street causing traffic jams? ... What? Cow is our mother? Oh, God!<br /><br />a bruised, wounded Gaurav now dabbing ice on his chin, said to Jahnvi, “Who do you go to? The corporators are never seen, cyclists don’t believe in road rules, ... the road administration blames the PWD; cows and elephants weave between traffic, somebody else blames somebody else.<br /><br />That evening Gaurav was called back to the police station to write out a statement. Since the tea boy had come with tea, Inspector Rohit Karnik offered him one too, and they sat on the verandah wall of the thana and talked. Karnik felt sorry for the cyclist. “Young boy, must have been precious to his parents,” he said.<br /><strong>Gaurav:</strong> You realise he was careless. He should not have been on the heavy vehicle lane. There were cops there but no one bothered to correct him.<br /><strong>Karnik:</strong> I see that everyday. But we cannot do anything. Yesterday, a little urchin girl came under a car. There is this whole gang here... they sell balloons, toys and what not at the signal lights. They walk randomly, run between traffic... the road cops say nothing. That car driver has been taken to the cleaners by the gang... I am fighting it, decided to be witness.<br /><strong>Gaurav:</strong> What? Serious?<br /><strong>Karnik: </strong>Of course, yes. Either the road user behaves himself or the cop does his job. Here, we have a free-for-all. Cops are sluggish, and users treat the roads like an inheritance! Tell me, who tells people on the road how to behave? How to drive, how to walk, when to cross? We have no jaywalking laws that are implemented. Raised pavements between two lanes are dividers, not for pedestrians... but people run over them, trip and fall... cars screech to a halt, bang into other cars, then, there is a free-for-all.<br /><strong>Gaurav:</strong> And drunk driving? They become revenue sources no...?<br /><strong>Karnik:</strong> Not always. We have many good cops, don’t forget, yet, almost always the offer comes first from the driver. I think their licences should be impounded!</div><div> </div><div><a href="http://www.businessworld.in/news/case-studies/analyis-seeing-with-a-single-i/1532379/page-1.html" target="_blank">Read Analysis By Arnab Bandyopadhyay</a><br /><a href="http://www.businessworld.in/news/case-studies/analyis-a-life-saving-framework/1532298/page-1.html" target="_blank">Read Analysis By Piyush Tewari</a><br /><a href="http://www.businessworld.in/news/case-studies/analysis-one-agency-several-tasks/1532264/page-1.html" target="_blank">Read Analysis By Manjul Joshipura</a></div><div> </div><div>break-page-break</div><div><br /> <br />Talking of licence, that truck driver you were protecting, guess where he learnt to drive? He learnt as a child, sitting on his uncle’s lap, during his interstate rides... (Then he made a quick call to ‘Joshi’ and said) I have asked my cousin Sriram Joshi to join us. His insights are so sharp... He is a road cop from Mumbai... very senior...<br /><strong>Gaurav:</strong> Then let me invite my colleague Jahnvi too. We keep researching legal-system user behaviours and are trying to establish that your affluence has nothing to do with your respect for the law. This is what we have seen in the ambit of Company Law, where breach is only made to look like strategy and hence gets a fine halo. Really... We are a ridiculous people with no respect for anything.<br /><strong>Karnik:</strong> Respect is an emotion of the literate-rich. The poor merely survive, Mr Rana... here, have one more tea. That tea boy pays his fees with this money... Yes, the poor... so they learn to drive free of cost — from relatives, from cabbies, from friends...Then, there are driving schools that are run by people who have not learnt driving formally. Same kind... they promise you pucca licence.. where did you learn?<br /><strong>Gaurav: </strong>WIAA, my father is ‘Hitler’. We cannot do anything that is illegal, you should employ him...<br />Karnik (laughing): Yes, we need people like that because there is nobody enforcing our innumerable laws sincerely. (And Joshi arrived.)<br /><strong>Joshi: </strong>The real problem is population. And bullock carts and baraats continue to take traffic space. In what other country does the groom ride a horse in peak traffic? Forget that, what about your own sense of logic as a groom? People don’t think! You always need a law to rein you in? Our people can’t think. Because our education system does not train us to think, but to use trick! What does the groom have to say for why he is on a damn horse in the thick of Bhuleshwar traffic? ‘I am getting married, you guys can wait...!’<br /><br />See, if law enforcement is strict, then that will amend behaviour to some extent. But the law that governs enforcement is weak and archaic —the Motor Vehicles Act, which only concerns itself with motorised road users, completely ignores pedestrians, cyclists of whom we have thousands, children, handcart pullers, cycle rickshaws! There is nothing in the law to regulate them or protect them!<br /><strong>Gaurav (now joined by Jahnvi too):</strong> Does the law regulate the elected corporators? If a city’s roads are a mess, who is responsible?<br /><strong><img alt="" height="410" src="/image/image_gallery?uuid=74675eb2-7ba6-418d-8375-d3865da05a33&groupId=222861&t=1410877465355" width="600" /><br /><br />Joshi: </strong>I don’t know... but I know that there are many ‘participants’ in an accident; Karnik was telling me about the cyclist’s accident. People beat up the lorry driver, he said. Whose fault is it? The pothole? Is it the truck driver’s training quality? The cyclist’s ignorance of road behaviour and weaving between lanes?<br />There should be a law, not just mere rules. India does not have any kind of road-code with a legal backing, We have many prescriptions and guidelines... nothing mandatory.<br /><strong>Gaurav:</strong> When you say there is no law for the pedestrian, if a pedestrian meets with an accident he cannot sue anybody?<br /><strong>Karnik:</strong> There is no accountability. A pedestrian has a right only to compensation in the event of death or injury.<br /><strong>Joshi:</strong> Forget all that, there is no law that protects children! Twenty children under 14, die every day in India in just road accidents. There are no statutes to protect children, only Supreme Court guidelines for school buses. So, there is really no law...<br /><strong>Jahnvi:</strong> All this is very depressing. I was reading about Kuldeep Singh’s deposition in the Geeta Market road accident. That was such an unnecessary accident! Who placed those road blocks right at the point where a vehicle will turn? That is the real culprit.<br /><strong>Joshi:</strong> See, the people responsible for placing road blocks are different from the ones who design road administration. The latter will issue instructions and the execution could be well given to casual labour! Absence of training and audit are causal factors in mishaps. A casual labourer has not even sat in a car, how is he to know the logical placement of road blocks?<br /><strong>Jahnvi: </strong>Talking of audit, how do we know if a road is built and managed right? Is there a requirement to audit the roads after construction for both logistics and quality?<br /><strong>Joshi: </strong>There is, but only as a prescription, not as a law. A road should be audited also at the design, construction and at the running stage. There is also no agency today that can do such audits. The audits are being done by the same agency that built the road — hence it is a big eyewash.<br /><strong>Gaurav:</strong> Karnik mentioned road user behaviour. Whether we have systems or audits, we can at least hold every road user responsible for value-based behaviour, isn’t it?<br /><strong>Joshi:</strong> Not without ensuring that his antecedents are perfect. Road acci-dents are correlated to the quality of drivers we put on the street, and that quality is driven by the driver training system and the driver licensing system. Do you know that our laws do not make driver training mandatory to get a licence? Like Kalulal, your truck driver, you can learn from anybody and still get a valid licence! Many don’t have valid birth certificates and a 16 year old was found driving a tow-away truck!</div><div> </div><div><a href="http://www.businessworld.in/news/case-studies/analyis-seeing-with-a-single-i/1532379/page-1.html" target="_blank">Read Analysis By Arnab Bandyopadhyay</a><br /><a href="http://www.businessworld.in/news/case-studies/analyis-a-life-saving-framework/1532298/page-1.html" target="_blank">Read Analysis By Piyush Tewari</a><br /><a href="http://www.businessworld.in/news/case-studies/analysis-one-agency-several-tasks/1532264/page-1.html" target="_blank">Read Analysis By Manjul Joshipura</a></div><div> </div><div>break-page-break</div><div><br /><br />There is no law regulating the functioning of driving schools, no prescribed curriculum, no certifying their trainers, nothing. In the rest of the world, drivers’ training is a key factor. Here, we have jugaad! Many of the driving schools trainers are self-trained. They have come up the untrained system! Will you let your child be taught algebra by the dhobhi?<br /><strong>Karnik:</strong> Why, they even guarantee you a licence when you join. It’s a joke. You don’t have to really go to the licensing authority and pass any test. You can have the licence home delivered for a certain price.<br /><strong>Joshi: </strong>So, when two things that are so critical to safe, sensible driving are fractured, how can you expect good road conduct?<br /><br />Okay, tell me, do people send their driver for an eye check-up? Do you know if they are of sound mental health? We are a jugaad nation. Absolutely no regard for the law and propriety. Now, examine the organisation structure: the RTO is under state government, while enforcement comes under the Home department. How can there be accountability divorced from responsibility?<br /><strong>Gaurav: </strong>Actually it gets worse. As you speak, I see that licensing is under state government, training under transport department, enforcement under Home department, and road engineering comes under PWD, or state highway corporation, national highways under NHAI, the urban design under the ministry of urban development. Good Lord...!<br /><strong>Jahnvi: </strong>What will be good is if all these can come under one apex body... all as stakeholders to delivering road safety with accountability... Gaurav, see the Company Law is not state-driven, it is a national law and is equally applicable no matter in which state you are registered. In much the same way, a road safety law should be created and should be applicable across India as one law. Instead, today they are all working in silos....<br /><strong>Joshi:</strong> Okay, good. Take the road user conflict. If you notice, the left most lane on our roads is used by the buses and the cyclists — the biggest motorised transport and the smallest and most vulnerable transport sharing the same space! In that lane you also have pedestrians walking because there are no sidewalks! This has led to many accidents. Who will you hold accountable?<br /><strong>Karnik:</strong> Then, the vehicle design. The base models of most brands do not have many safety features. The Aloysius Spectra (Geeta Market accident) was without airbags! Or take that SUV accident in Karnal, the vehicle had airbags which burst!<br /><strong>Joshi: </strong>Crash testing would not have been done 100 per cent! Aisa kaise ho sakta hai!<br /><strong>Karnik: </strong>What is that?<br /><strong>Joshi:</strong> A human dummy is fitted with some 200 sensors and placed in a car and the car is crashed at specified speeds. Then, the dummy is checked for nature of the spinal, abdominal and head injuries, even death. But I have been told there is no vehicle crash testing in India. Some brands that were taken abroad to do a crash test failed the crash test at 56 kmph as well as 64 kmph. That is why the Karnal SUV accident was bothersome for me. It seems there are no controls over what is being sold here.<br /><strong>Karnik: </strong>Cars are also being sold without anti-lock braking system, EBD, (which varies the braking pressure on each wheel), many don’t have seat belts in the back. These base models are what the common man buys when he is making a shift from two-wheelers to cars!<br /><br />My complaint is with marketing the cars as ‘with safety features’ as if they are an attribute! To enable sales, safety features are sold as optionals! Safety is a part of the car system. How can you offer it as an add-on for additional price? Why is the government not coming down on such manufacturers? So, now add to your diversity, vehicle engineering is dealt by the Ministry of Heavy Industries!<br /><strong>Jahnvi:</strong> Wow! They are offering you safety as a feature, not as a necessity, not as your right, not as their duty to fit the cars with?<br /><strong>Gaurav:</strong> Wow, I never realised how all these are core to road safety. Imagine, the simple licence can be the biggest killer!<br /><strong>Joshi: </strong>Absolutely! And licensing should include covert behaviour checks on a new licensee. Such as, does he use the mobile phone while driving? I am ruthless on such drivers! Arre, you need to have maturity to drive a car. It is not a status symbol! Owning a car is a responsibility. You have to have respect for the man on the street! I think there should be probation of a year before licence is granted and a licensee should be deemed a learner during probation!<br /><br />There is a lot the law has to do. There should be one regulatory body that pins the causes of road accidents and fixes the inefficiencies and sub-optimalities, which make it compulsory for training schools to be accredited to the Indian Automobile Association, which sets standards for vehicle design, standards under law for road behaviour, compels helmet wearing for all, makes it imperative for pavements to be built and kept free of vendors, impounds licences of intoxicated drivers and mobile users... there is a lot... you need a Sebi kind of regulator! There is no other way...<br /><br /><em>This is the concluding part of the trilogy on road safety law.</em><br /><br /><strong>Meera Seth</strong><br /><br />(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 06-10-2014)</div>
