Make Them Drive Safe

Editorial:-
Anyone driving down from Gangtok towards Ranipool Monday morning would have noticed a car crashed into a roadside wall near 5th Mile. The vehicle was clearly driving uphill and has ploughed into the wall on the wrong side. It appears that this vehicle was overtaking a vehicle on a blind turn, lost control and crashed. This is a surmise, but anyone who has seen the disregard for safety, their own as well as of others, with which too many people drive nowadays, this scenario appears very plausible. Also today, a vehicle sped up Rumtek, irritating other drivers with persistent honking to claim passage. Even this reckless run ended in a mishap when the vehicle hit a child. A few days ago, a speeding passenger jeep missed a turn on the highway and claimed seven lives. Rash driving unfortunately has become the norm on Sikkim roads and not the aberration anymore. What is worse, agencies empowered to do something about it would rather keep busy getting into ego tussles with people over one-way traffic regulations, shifting practical taxi stops to save their officers from the occasional traffic jam and sniffing around for vehicles to put clamps on for unauthorized parking. Even when mishaps occur, one reads only of the incident being investigated and of drivers in question being booked under different sections of the Indian Penal Code. Such cases are obviously being compromised in the investigation stage itself, except in the rare case when the driver is without connections or means. One is yet to hear of anything concrete being done to curb reckless driving, but now that traffic on all Sikkim roads has increased to dangerous levels, it is time that something was done.
To start with, better driving courtesies need to be ensured. Drivers who make a U-Turn without care for the traffic they have held up, or drivers who jump lines in a traffic jam and those who take off without warning, are most likely to endanger others with their rude attitudes because they will also almost be the ones who overtake on a blind curve or speed through cramped spaces unmindful of pedestrians, including children, who could come under their wheels. And penalizing such driving attitudes would be a good place to begin the process of making the roads safe. Challan drivers who jump lanes in traffic jams, book drivers who signal wrong or display rash driving; take such action often enough and maybe responsible driving will become an instinctive skill. Another option worth exploring will be replacing the driving advise graffiti with phone numbers into which people can sms registration numbers of vehicles they feel are moving dangerously. Cops can then a lookout for such vehicles and take action accordingly. Earlier, when there were fewer vehicles on the roads, people could take precautions and keep themselves safe; now, there are simply too many vehicles and too much recklessness on the loose for precautions to work and more proactive action from all sides is required.