Danger lurks on highways

There is an ever present danger on our National Highways. Trucks breakdown and as a warning to other road users, actually to protect themselves from a rear-end collision, the truckers place large boulders around the trucks. When they move off they do not bother to remove the boulders.

Now listen to Dev’s story.

It was a cold wintery morning. About 06.30 hrs. It was foggy and misty and the visibility was low. He was coming from Yamuna Nagar to Chandigarh, driving cautiously as dictated by the weather.

Just before Ambala, he topped up his petrol tank. Coming down the flyover, he saw them but before he could take evasive action, he hit them. Large boulders lay helter-skelter on the road. He straddled one; it was so big, it punched a hole in his petrol tank. Instantly, he smelt petrol and a moment later saw it flowing downhill on the flyover. The downhill gradient saved him. A minute later, the car behind him hit a boulder and burst a tyre. Instantly, the car was running on the rim. A metal rim scrapping the tarmac sent out a shower of sparks.

Had the two cars being going uphill, the petrol from Dev’s car would have been flowing downhill into the path of the following car. Now imagine the car with a burst tyre, running on its rim and throwing up sparks into a pool of petrol. A petrol tank with 40 litres plus fumes is really good for a big bang!

About a hundred metres away is the Indian Oil Depot. A petrol engine car catching fire and exploding will throw flaming debris up to a couple of hundred metres away. The vegetation could catch fire and spread towards the massive IOC storage tanks. This could spell a disaster of unmitigated proportions. How come this massive oil depot is within city limits? No one thought of the worst case scenario, which is a whole point of planning.

Another case of this visionary amnesia is on the same road. Ever since my childhood, I have been travelling on the Sher Shah Suri Marg, which became The Grand Trunk Road and then National Highway No 1. On my last trip to Delhi, I saw that the road has been designated as National Highway No 44. Who would want to degrade India’s most historic road that once connected Chittagong to Kabul? It was considered Asia’s most outstanding highway. But when one leaves Delhi, the first 20 kilometres or more seem like a canyon of buildings on either side. Shopping malls, educational institutes, Mc Donald’s, temples and gurdwaras squeeze the main highway into a narrow strip. In some cases, a building is metres away from the National Highway. No one building this highway knows the purpose of a service road. All traffic, fast cars to bullock carts, rub shoulders on the National highway.

New York City introduced bumper slogans to the world. They provided amusement and entertainment to the jaded, tired commuter stuck in a traffic jam. It soon became an art form, an outlet for a creative mind.

But for a hundred years, all we had was OK, Ta-Ta, Horn Please, Use Dipper At Night! How come we have never thought of another phrase?

The answer is simple. We need a creative mind with a sense of humour, who is an expert on traffic management.

Happy Motoring!