It was the night the racing car driver’s destiny was to deal him a cruel blow. I had just eased out of the signal near the office to take the road below the Kathipara flyover when a streak of yellow hit my left eye and passed on within a trice. It was a Lamborghini overtaking me on the left and doing about 140 kms on that narrow winding stretch. Thrilling as the sight was, I was wondering if this was the responsible thing to do on the city roads, even if was past midnight. Having hardly covered 200 metres, another shocker was in store. It was red flash this time as a souped-up Indian sedan passed me on my left and streaked on.
It was on the same night that various people must have been speeding to test their thrills by night and one of them smashed up a Porsche Cayman, ramming a dozen parked auto rickshaws and killing an innocent fare-earning auto rickshaw driver who was asleep in his vehicle. Sporting victories are celebrated abroad in all odd ways and honking automobiles are invariably part of the mix. Cars driven at high speeds are sometimes part of the high jinks, but on select roads that are cordoned off. No one is allowed to zip around city roads as if they were racing tracks.
“Speed thrills but also kills” is the message that often hits your eye from highway signage. Years ago, they were probably more humorous with slogans like “Better late than Late Mister So and So.” Everyone in life goes through this phase of fantasy of travelling in a fast car. About 20 years ago, I once woke up my wife and Mrs Rutnagur as we were speeding towards the Kruger national park from Johannesburg to inform them that the speedometer was then touching the 200 kmph mark. On a freeway with little traffic, even a hired station wagon was capable of such speeds. But I stayed on the pedal just to record the event for a few minutes. Why would anyone wish to live on the nerves by driving fast at every opportunity?
No doubt modern cars are speedy beasts, but they also demand a huge amount of discipline behind the wheel because the tiniest miscalculation can trigger an expensive mistake. The occupants may be well protected by the safety features. What about bystanders? Also, driving on roads medians is not an unalloyed blessing although they have helped immensely in keeping Indian drivers from crashing into each other head-on, which they are perfectly capable of doing. The tiniest error in terms of concentration can see the car gliding right into the median and the shock and the bounce-off can trigger any reaction even in a skilful race and rally driver. The increasing number of deaths on Indian roads, in which Tamil Nadu has always been one of the leaders, comes despite the vast improvement in the drivability of cars and trucks.
Far higher levels of driver skills are called for in modern vehicles capable of quicker acceleration and higher road speeds essentially because we are dealing with the narrow carriageways of our roads. And yet we see the young show off their high jinks in the most dangerous of traffic conditions. The bike racers are an even greater threat to society and to themselves as they weave in and out as if they were Maradona zig-zagging his way past the England defence, cutting one way for a second and then swinging the other way leaving other road users flabbergasted by the chances they are taking. Driving on the Beach Road on a Saturday evening is guaranteed to give you more tension than in a week of tackling some of the most hazardous road conditions in the world.
The culture shock I suffered in Australia 36 years ago while waiting on the pavement to cross the road taught a lesson that will never be forgotten. The traffic kept going by as I stood Indian-style hoping for a break. But the moment I set one foot on the pedestrian crossing, about eight cars to my right stopped. And nearing the halfway point I saw about 10 cars on my left braking to stop. The respect for rules and the recognition that pedestrian safety is a huge priority was to make an indelible impression.
Cars, even those going to the airport, may have to wait five minutes at a road junction to let the traffic on the right pass and none would break the rules so as to ensure everyone travelled safely on the roads. How one wishes what seems utopian in India will come true one day.
