One minute, he was living, breathing, laughing; the next, his life ceased to exist. [break]
His mother weeps gently. I think the message is finally sinking in, and she has come to terms with reality.
All his friends, including myself, are standing outside the Emergency Room of the hospital, too shocked to fathom what has just happened. After all, he was our age.
“I should’ve never given him a motorbike,” his teary-eyed mother says. But then again, who could’ve looked ahead and predicted death so early on his cards?
My friend was, in fact, merely one in approximately 1,734 people who meet with road accidents annually in Nepal. The “Status Paper on Road Safety in Nepal” states that “This [road accidents] has become a serious problem which killed more than 1,734 people [and caused] injury to more than 11,000 people in year 2009/10.”
The road conditions in Nepal are a serious cause for concern. And believe me when I say that it feels horrible to have to walk away from what I saw today with this heavy realization. Especially because I had to use a horrid experience such as the death of someone close to me as a learning example.
Road safety has been such a “taken for granted” issue that we barely feel the need to go back to the roots of proper road sense, if I may term it so. Overtaking from the left, avoiding zebra crossings while crossing the road and if you can run a red light – bonus points for you!
Roads have become synonymous with stunt grounds today. It’s become a place to speed through and show your skills off as a stuntman in an inadequately developed infrastructure of the country.
It’s become a place where racing with reckless microbus drivers is a thrill, and not stupidity. And all this for what, I ask. If it’s adrenalin you’re looking for, then bungee might be a saner alternative.
Moreover, the eternal rush we all seem to be in to get anywhere is amazing. How can we, including myself, be so tensed and feel the need to overtake every moving vehicle is beyond my understanding, if I sit down to contemplate the matter.
Why are we so reckless? Surely, a few minutes worth of wait can’t cost us much damage. Quite on the contrary, it may even save us from it.
I haven’t dared ask my friend’s family how he met with this fatal accident. But I’ve figured out as much that he ran into another vehicle while speeding. From what I hear, even the other vehicle was running way over the speed limit.
This is where I get to my next point. I find it infuriating that solely being a cautious driver isn’t enough anymore. From what I’ve been pondering on, my friend might’ve been abiding by all the traffic rules and driving very sincerely, like I know the driver in him to be have been. But despite that, if another maddened vehicle comes crashing onto you, it’s just too bad for you, isn’t it?
And what with some 506,135 vehicles plying solely in the Bagmati Zone and approximately 1.01 million in total in the country, as per the statistics of 2009-10, and according to www.ktm2day.com, there’s no guarantee that some of the drivers in them won’t be engaging in foolhardy driving. And mind you, we are still counting the escalating number of these vehicles on our already pitiful roads.
Of a whole new concern is how such stupid drivers qualify for licenses – be they drivers of microbuses, buses, cars, motorbikes, or scooters. Everyone seems to be braving the roads rather audaciously, and frankly, I don’t know if this audacity of theirs is fueled by sheer luck or competence itself.
Because as far as I know, if we all start driving with a “kill or get killed” motto, then the number of lives that are going to be affected is going to soar alarmingly. And if it were up to me, I would honestly consider scrutinizing motorbike and microbus licenses and limiting their numbers by a radical percentage. Who knows, the traffic might actually improve then!
Of course, reevaluating today, I know that there were a lot of factors that were coming into play for my departed friend. I can’t single out one reason as to why he met with such an accident. But he did.
It won’t be wise to ponder on the day’s events any longer. But let me tell you this: it could’ve been you who died today, or it could’ve been me. And why would that have been? It’s indeed worth thinking about.
Here’s wishing Pi Benz’s soul eternal peace. You shouldn’t have been taken away from us!
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