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THE first week of February saw North India lashed by rain, hail and snow. Driving on a snow-covered road is extremely dangerous and, consequently, demanding. The snow-covered road is dangerous because it denies complete traction to the tyres, it is the reduced visibility that matters. If it is snowing, the snow will accumulate on the windscreen exterior. The inside will fog up. To keep the windscreen clear, it is essential to have wipers. Most cars have two wipers, to clean the windscreen from the passenger side to the driver. It is also the rule that when the wipers complete their swipe, the wiper on the driver's side should be vertical and parallel to the ‘A’ pillar. This provides maximum clearance to provide good visibility to the driver.
Fair weather or foul, visibility is all important for the driver at all times. Yet the wiper is one fitment that is the most ignored, especially on public transport. Take a look around you, most buses have only one windshield wiper and it is on the driver’s side. The passenger side wiper has been removed. Most drivers and mechanics are of the opinion that two wipers are not necessary. Nothing could be farther from the truth. God gave you two eyes for a very good reason. If a person has one eye, he is considered visually impaired. To have two eyes but one wiper amounts to the same. Note the Volvo buses. They have two wipers, the blades are about a meter long and they work against each other, meaning they come to rest vertically against the “A” pillars on the driver and passenger side. They clear the windscreen almost entirely to give the driver a clear field of vision. European standards are very strict where public safety is concerned. But that is not true of India. Haryana Roadways, is most repectfully called Haryana Airways, by the motorists on NH1, because they are the fastest vehicles on the road. However, their safety factor is highly questionable. They are manufactured with provision for only one wiper. The windscreen is a split windscreen, as it used to be 50 years ago. The wipers are small in length and the swipe is restricted, just enough to clear a small area in front of the driver to provide tunnel vision. There is no peripheral vision, which is important for a huge bus negotiating narrow overcrowded bazaars or driving on the highway at a considerable speed. Another point to be noted is that there is no illumination for the rear number plate. The registration number is simply hand-painted both at the front and the rear. This at a time when the high-security plates are the order of the day. It would seem that these intentional cost-cutting measures are at the cost of human lives. One reason for this shoddy manufacture is that there are no guidelines, rules or norms for manufacture of buses by the government. Anyone can buy a chassis and build whatever be the demands. A body builder, ill-equipped and ill-informed in the finer aspects of safety puts a juaagad together. The cheapest material is used, hastily put together and a bus is on the road, that too a killer bus. In case of a collision, the body simply disintegrates, killing the passengers. To curb road fatalities, building a safe bus is important. At the recent tender by C.T.U. to induct a new fleet of buses for the city, only one company, Volvo, met the norms. That says volumes about the quality of other manufacturers.
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good
motoring
