Goa’s appalling road sense-3 

Valmiki Faleiro
 

Expert driving alone does not make safe drivers. *Road sense,* coupled with fair skill, would avert bulk of road carnage – emerging, slowly but inexorably, as Goa’s major tragedy. In earlier parts, we checked speeding (or *over speeding,* an Indian coinage) and overtaking. In today’s concluding part, let’s sample our assorted road proclivities. (This series on death on Goa’s roads, which began Feb 26, will however continue, dwelling on diverse components of the complex issue.)

Road sense is a crucial area that, I’m told, the world-class Maruti Driving Schools have laid abundant curriculum emphasis … but, alas, is alien to Goa’s system of teaching, licensing and enforcing. How many drivers know about *right of way,* for example, at various traffic points – entering a major road, a roundabout or at an intersection, a crosswalk or on a ghat section? Would there be as many fatalities outside Dabolim airport, if we did? Or at the Verna bypass (till elaborate roundabouts, rumble-strips and signage was installed to *herd* drivers)? Or at Anmod ghat?

Do we know we must give way to traffic approaching from the right (their *blind* side)? How many of us will just dart into a main road, unmindful? Are we lane conscious, like ahead of an intersection, when wanting to turn? Is road hogging not our national pastime, whether on two or more wheels?

How many know the must STOP, for pedestrians on a zebra-lined crosswalk who have the right of way? (For an answer, watch that conscientious lady Home Guard control traffic near Margao’s Cafe Marliz … and chase, umbrella in hand, motorists who won’t stop even when asked to!) We must also STOP when someone in dark glasses raises a *white cane with a red tip* and attempts to cross the road, not commit hara-kiri. (Maybe low incidence of blindness accounts for one not being run over in Goa, yet?)

Ambulances and fire tenders enjoy similar right of way (but not our *sontri* VIPs with flashing beacon lamps … personally, I yield way out of sheer deference to the national flag they fly!) Motorists duck to the side at the sight of a Police or RTO jeep, not to wailing sirens of an ambulance. (Many are clueless about why *ambulance* is painted in mirror image … they’ve never checked their rearview mirror as an ambulance follows!) Do we know that a traffic cop’s command is law, irrespective of the road sign (like in an emergency)?

Ah, Goa and tailgating! Few realise that a motor vehicle (two- or more- wheel) is a contraption without an *instant stop.* Considering minimum stopping distances and normal conditions, a safe driver will maintain one car length from the vehicle ahead for every 15 km/ph speed (four car lengths at 60 km/ph, six car lengths at 90 km/ph, etc.) At a ghat, descend in the gear engaged on the way up (to avoid brake-fading, a temporary failure due to overheating of brake pads.) Uphill traffic has the right of way.

How many drivers understand road markings – broken lines, continuous lines, parallel lines, lines in white, lines in yellow, straight and arrowed indicators – painted on road surfaces? Strangely, learners are taught intensively, and examined, on road/traffic signs … in a tourist haven that woefully lacks sufficient signage (mandatory, cautionary or informatory) to caution and guide Goa’s honoured guests!

Central Motor Vehicle rules ban dark sun films, which, for roadster Romeos, are more vision- than sun-control films. Such cars understandably move at snail’s pace and overtaking them is hazardous as they block vision of the road ahead. All these are mandatory rules, rarely observed. Can *road etiquette* be expected? Check annoying honking. Thank small mercies for our muted road rage. If this were America, most Goan drivers would vanish – not from accidents, but gunshots!

TAILPIECE (from the week’s Goanet): Gabriel de Figueiredo, Melbourne, who drove in Goa until he migrated in 1980, feels local newspapers must publish a daily count of road accidents and deaths. “This will hopefully ensure that no one thinks himself/herself invincible and drive more carefully. Another idea is a weekly serialization of safe driving practices.” Eddie Fernandes, London, denounces corruption in the Driving School-RTO nexus and narrates a hilarious experience trying to get a Goa driving licence in addition to his British one. During the oral, the RTO failed Eddie for not knowing to "Blow the horn.” To which Elisabeth Carvalho felt that Goa politicians should have "Blowing my own horn" on their number plates. More seriously, she notes, “Despite a driving license from the Middle East (a feat acquiring), an International license and a US driving license, I would never drive in India.”

Edward Verdes, Saudi Arabia, notes that drivers stop to let pedestrian cross roads in the Gulf. In Goa, drivers pass comments like, "Bhattant pasoiek eilam baie? Rosto tujea paicho re? Moronk utla re.” Basil D’Cunha moans the lack of penalties against reckless drivers. “Does he have to pay the (victim’s) family any compensation - if so how much? Has someone put a figure to the value of life?” Cornel (UK) would like to see rigorous, corruption-free driving tests in Goa. After nearly doing Mapusa’s recent Mohammed Adnani “when driving on a very dark night in a village in Goa,” he now uses taxi when here.

Valmiki Faleiro
April 8, 2006

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