from Lenny Barretto
for Daijiworld Media Network - Goa (MB)
Panaji, May 11: The mad race to move faster has always gripped mankind right through the ages. From bullock-carts to bicycles to motorcycles to cars to express train to super express trains to aeroplanes and what not, the human being has graduated from one stage to another.
The speed is always a fulcrum of all these changes. We are getting into fast, faster and fastest mode. The race is on. It’s not just on the racing tracks, but this race is witnessed on the main roads and even smaller lanes taking lives of many people.
Immediate statistics of the people dying on Goan roads may not be available but certainly the number is huge. This whopping number is bloating every passing year. The state police are justifying their salaries by implementing the rule like compulsory helmets, which, statistically, has shown positive results.
The government rules are increasing. Is it the only thing we can do to save lives on the road?
No. If the state police want, they can resort to many other methods. Let’s take the special case of Panaji where police are all the time busy checking licences, insurance and other documents while as a rule ignoring the speeding vehicles.
For instance, in the case of D B Bandodkar road, one of the busiest thoroughfares in the capital city, one would see people zooming to the maximum speed. An accident a day is witnessed here. Many of the victims are shifted to Goa Medical College, Bambolim and no one can keep track of what happens to them thereafter.
The college students are leading the flock who love to speed. The Miramar beach, situated at the fag-end of this road, is a place where you will see youth speeding to impress the young girls around. These youth are unmindful of the fact that girls just consider them as cartoons or jokers, who are nothing less than those working in circus and presenting various daredevil adventures. Who will fall in love with the guy who is likely to die in a road accident?
The Goa traffic police have failed to look into this aspect. Speeding goes unchecked, maybe because the bikes used by traffic police are worn out and hence cannot compete with the latest bikes used by youth. The police prefer to ignore all this and on the other hand concentrate on only checking licences and issuing challans to those people who ride comparatively slower and threfore can be caught.
We know that the Goa traffic police's senior officers are educated ones and will surely have a relook at the functioning of its force. If they don’t, the accident trend will take a heavy toll.