re: How safe are our highways? 24th December, 2010. The worst day of my life. The day when I nearly killed my mum, aunt, uncle and my little cousin brother. I have never felt so much guilt weighing me down in just one day. I want to take responsibility for the incident, even though I was assured by everyone that it wasn't my fault. And I know that. But still, the experience has destroyed a part of me. The guilt has consumed a bit of my soul. I am not sure how long I will take to recover from what happened on the 24th. The day before Christmas. I am not severely depressed about it. But depressed nonetheless. Hurt. Broken. Guilty. Numb. Angry. Time is the best healer I guess. But I am relieved everyone is alive. Including me.
We left for a place Kumbakonam, somewhere in Tamil Nadu. The five of us intended to visit a few temples and return the next day back to Bangalore. I have about 7 or 8 years of driving experience. Although, 70% is city driving and the rest on the highway. We left Bangalore at 6:45AM and headed toward Kumbakonam after picking up my aunt's family. The drive was going good without any hiccups. Around 250km into the drive, we met with an accident. I was on the right lane on the state highway cruising at around 100-110Kmph. There were just two lanes on either side of the road divider. There was a lorry on the left lane and out of the blue he swerves to the right WITHOUT INDICATING OR SIGNALLING to take a turn at the gap in the median. At this point, I had very little time to react and I slammed the brakes. I usually pump the brakes in very quick succession so as to not lock the brakes up. I had learnt this technique a few years ago on a drive to the outskirts of Bangalore one night. Needless to say, I learnt it accidentally when I spotted an unmarked speed-breaker on the highway toward Nandi Hills in Bangalore. But sadly, this time around I was unable to because the lorry wasn't stationary and I had no control whatsoever. Unfortunately, the brakes locked up and the car went skidding straight and I ploughed right into the back of the lorry and the lorry driver had already braked. Had he kept his speed I probably could have swerved to the left and avoided the collision. There was no other vehicle on either lane for a good 100+ meters. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
I don't know if its just intuition or something else, a split second before the impact, I let go of the steering wheel and that saved me from getting badly injured. I got out of the car unscathed. But my uncle wasn't very lucky. He tried to hold the dashboard and the glass shards flying around pierced his left palm. He later complained of pain in his left leg. My aunt was in the back seat holding my cousin. The poor boy broke his left shoulder bone. She was in shock and complained of uneasiness. My mum bruised her right leg and foot and had a swollen chin. At this point, I was a bit taken aback and things were yet to sink in. I was upset that they were hurt and I wasn't. I began to get really mad at the godforsaken lorry driver. I lost it when he blatantly lied about signalling. I rained punches on his face. He was unapologetic and that made me even more mad. He tried getting away at one point and I had to drag him to the side of the road and rained some more punches. My folks were trying to hold me back and I wasn't willing to let go. Luckily, there was a gentleman from Bangalore who had stopped a few moments after the accident and he tried to pacify me. I knew it wasn't right to raise my hand. I didn't care about it. He deserved to have a few bones broken because of what he had done to us. There were a couple of locals who kept saying what if the other locals assembled and chopped my hand off. I dared him to call anyone he wants and I was ready to fight. At this point I knew it was low to say something like that. But in the next few minutes, I was overcome by anger and hate toward the bloody arrogant driver who wouldn't accept his mistake and apologize nor display any fear of getting into trouble. Finally, one of those arrogant locals calls for ambulance and the police. Before the police arrived, these locals kept telling us that it was the driver's fault. But the moment the police arrived, they blamed us and said I was right behind the lorry all the while. I felt sick to my stomach at that point. I was in a very good mind to break his face. I had to control myself. I managed to drive the car to the police station and reached a while later.
The police. My god. They didn't have just very dark skin. They had the darkest souls. Insensitive humans. Spineless. Faceless. Crooks. Thieves. Thugs. Rogues. Liars. I can go on and on. But what's the use? The driver accused me of driving rashly. This was expected. The owner's sidekick arrives and tries to boss over us because weren't locals. The police knew our weakness and so did the sidekick. But we didn't let that bog us down. The Inspector takes an hour to write down a rough draft of the FIR. He could barely speak a word of English and that made it even more horrible because our Tamil wasn't very fluent. But my uncle and I managed to convey our message. It took the police 4 hours to file an FIR. That too, they asked me to sign the FIR copy and promised to have the copy couriered to our Bangalore address. I fully knew this would prove very costly later. So I was adamant and demanded the FIR be filed right in front of me. The subordinate responsible didn't agree and said it would take an hour. When we protested he simply walked away because he knew he was trapped and didn't have a genuine reason. He kept loitering around for a while and my uncle began to get very upset. We raised our voices and said our child was hurt badly and needs attention. Finally, the inspector showed some decency and began the mountainous task of filing an FIR. Even then he was very reluctant to file the FIR because he found out that the lorry owner didn't have the documents or insurance for the rogue vehicle. We began breathing down his neck and he had to give in. 2 hours later the FIR copy is in our hands.
I have cut down on the finer details of the wonderful system that is in place in our wonderful country. If I have vent out my anger at what we went through, I would have to go on and on. I haven't mentioned what happened after this. But I can safely say, it was agony. It was a nightmare. This, ladies and gentlemen, is India. The land where great leaders and kings were born. This is the land of people who had great respect for themselves and for others. The land where people were honest and sincere. But that was eons ago. It was only in the history books. Honesty lies buried in moral stories. We can't tell from right and wrong. We can't be honest when it matters the most. We can never be honest for once. We are only interested in what benefits us. We don't care if that is going to be unfair to others. Maybe it is unfair to say this happens at a particular town or city. Something similar, but not so serious, has happened to me several years ago in Bangalore. So it just goes to show, India is the same whether you go up North or down South or East or West. This, my dear friends, is India for you. Note from the Team-BHP Support Staff : Post edited. Abusive language – whether used directly or indirectly - is STRICTLY prohibited on Team-BHP. A decent communication protocol must be adhered to.
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Last edited by FlyingSpur : 1st January 2011 at 21:45.
Reason: Indirect abusive language using ****.
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