As I stood shivering on the side of the road, barely registering a lorry honking somewhere near an underpass, I was still trying to make sense of what had happened.
There was a rough gap in my memory between the jolt I had felt only a few minutes ago, and the scene before me. The cab was wedged firmly on the divider, wheels straddling either side, having come to a grating halt about ten meters from where it hit the divider. The cab driver, a motorist, and a few passers-by—the only people out at 2am on that road—were inspecting the banged up vehicle. I continued to clutch my phone and bag, staring straight ahead, wide-eyed.
It had all started out fairly normally. My partner and I were heading back home, tummies full from dinner, and eyes drooping with sleep. There was only one option. To book a cab. The usual formalities of OTPs and Google Maps followed. Then, as we took off, in the rearview mirror, we watched the cab driver’s weary eyes flitting from the smartphone on the dashboard to the road. We said nothing even when he jumped a red light.
Cut to two minutes later: we entered a four-lane road, with a generous helping of smog. Our cab driver narrowly missed colliding with a man on a scooter. He had been concentrating too much on the map on his phone, and not enough on the road and mirrors. That’s when disaster struck. He completely lost sight of the road, and, unable to go either left or right, rammed squarely into the divider. The underbelly of the car shuddered violently as we skidded across the length of the divider, stopping only when friction took mercy. We sprang out immediately.
I got away unscathed, but I could have easily any one of the 1,50,000 people who die in road accidents every year. But if I was thoroughly shaken, my partner was the exact opposite. In unaffected tones, she told me “I’ve seen worse”. I didn’t doubt it, but I wondered at how common road accidents must be in India to produce such a matter-of-fact reaction.
When the cab driver, with the help of the others, had lifted the vehicle off the divider, he called out to us: “Madam baith jaiye, koi tension nahi hai.” Naturally we refused. In that moment, we sorely wished that the Metro was a 24-hour service.
There were so many factors at play. A sleepy, overworked, distracted driver was only one of them. The dark, smog-wrapped road had no reflectors on the divider. At 2am, first-responders were fellow motorists. There was no traffic police in sight. After having identified “killer stretches” the police have deployed personnel in some places, but they haven’t reached everywhere. And if jams and angry honking plagues the roads during the day, it’s night time that’s the riskiest. Yup. 9pm to 3am is considered to be the most dangerous time to be out on the road.
Things cannot end at giving a cab driver a bad rating on an app, or even calling customer care.
We have to tackle the issue at multiple levels. First and foremost, we need to ensure that cab aggregators have their customers’ and employees’ safety at the heart of their functions. Working conditions need to be such that they grant every cab driver adequate time for rest, for food, for answering the call of nature, without compromising on their income in any way. Companies need to meet their drivers’ needs so they can concentrate on the job at hand.
Public institutions also play a huge role. The “killer stretches” I mentioned before need to be monitored by the police. Putting up barricades can regulate traffic speeds. These stretches also need signages urging motorists and pedestrians to be extra, extra, extra careful!
As passengers we also need to invigorate our reactions to road accidents! While accepting them as a sad reality India can never escape is easier, we do become complicit in allowing the problem to persist. Accidents need to be reported to the appropriate authorities. Further still, we need to keep an eye out for warning signs (like sleepy eyes in the rear-view mirror) and intervene at that stage itself!
Even simple changes like these, if implemented, can go a long way in keeping all of us safe on the road.