Level Crossings: A Primer

It is a great leveller. It has the power to make every vehicle, no matter its size, the VIP quotient of its occupant or the nuisance value of its horn, painfully wait at its behest. In Bangalore city, railway level crossings at most places are a sore reminder of the deep rooted inertia and lack of foresight of our city planners in implementing alternatives such as overbridges or under passes.
 
Level crossings are a relic of an era when traffic volumes in the city were one tenth of what they are now. When every middle class family's nirvana was 'hamara Bajaj' and very few actually attained it. A waiting period of 4-5 years for a scooter was quite common. Things like EMI were not even heard of and 'easy finance' only meant dowry!
 
The scene near level crossings are of utter chaos driven by sick hurry of motorists, though a little patience and respect for order (something very foreign to our nature) would go a long way in making matters easier. As the gates tilt down to a close with the accompaniment of a buzzing sound, some bikers race to sneak through with the adeptness of movie stuntmen.
 
Once the gates are down the dreary wait for the train to pass begins, and so does the crafty jugaad mentality of motorists. Like rats and cockroaches those on two-wheelers manage to sneak past the waiting traffic, to be close to the gate so that they can scoot off the moment it opens. By the time the train arrives, the traffic build up on both sides is like rival armies arrayed in a battle formation, eagerly waiting for the war bugle to go off.
 
Once the gates are opened all driving etiquette take a back seat and Darwinian instincts take over. Size of the vehicle and number of wheels become crucial. Those steering burly six-wheeler trucks try to browbeat those behind the wheels of 800 cc hatchbacks and sedans into submission. Luggage auto rickshaws laden with steel rods intimidate two-wheeler riders by subjecting them to 'cheeky' close shaves.
 
For all motorists in general its a nerve wracking one-inch-at-a-time rite of passage as they have to maintain their cool amid high decibel horns, heated exchanges and brinkmanship by fellow motorists. By the time the chaos gets over, it's time to down the level crossing gates for the next train.
 
Tailpiece: Motorists should realise that it is mechanical energy that powers the gates of level crossings and not sound energy. Hence please give your thumb, 'horn' button and the battery a much needed break!

Also Read: Random Jottings

Underage Driving: Menace on Wheels

A scene near a junction in Koramangala: Three boys clad in school uniform on a scooter graze past a Volkswagen Vento resulting in scratches on the rear end of the car. The trio had a minor fall but they immediately get up and race away before the middle aged car driver could do anything other than come out of his vehicle and throw up his hands in helplessness. The school kids fled unmindful of their minor injuries because they had breached three traffic rules (a) Riding triple on a bike (b) None of them were wearing helmet and (c) The guy riding the bike probably was nowhere old enough to have a licence!

Though the above incident may be dismissed as a harmless prank by restless teenagers, but quite often the consequences are far more disastrous, often causing serious injuries and even deaths to the riders and pedestrians.

The presence of a vehicle at their home often works as a huge motivator to learn how to handle them, especially when it happens to be of their siblings. A beginning is made by fiddling with horn and then, in case of two-wheelers, sitting on it to check if their legs are long enough to touch the ground. Then they graduate to getting a hang of brake and gear. Nothing gives them a bigger kick to impress their friends by flaunting their driving skills.

In many cases the parents too encourage and even feel proud that their underage ward has become an 'expert' driver of a scooter or car and see it as a sign of being adventurous. They see in them something they couldn't accomplish while they were young, in those licence-permit raj days even a cycle was a luxury. For many affluent parents it is the guilt of not have much time for their children that motivates them to gift them two-wheelers to keep them happy or else to keep up with the neighbours. Some are conscientious enough not to let their wards use two-wheelers to school, but allow them to use it while going for tuition, in order beat poor bus connectivity, and save time.

However, these coming of age rides do go awry leading to accidents and the subsequent brush with law makes the whole picture messy as the law sees accidents caused by someone without licence as criminal offence and makes parents too responsible. They are also barred from claiming insurance.

For parents it’s a huge embarrassment to step into police stations and they use all their clout to avoid it. Then they move heaven and earth to keep their children out of juvenile homes. Hence in most cases when an underage driver gets involved in accident, he flees the scene and later an older person with driving licence shows up to claim responsibility, to dilute the offence - as it happened in the recent episode involving the scion of India's richest family in Mumbai. The same trick was unsuccessfully tried at an earlier accident involving a prominent realtor's son in Bangalore. This tendency to go to any extent to save their wards only encourages underage driving and then even graduates to dangerous stunts like wheelies and drag racing.

Another issue that gets hardly reported is that of cleaning boys taking over the wheels of trucks on highways or while driving water lorries and tractors within the city. Drivers, who may be either tired or drunk, happily hand over the wheels to these boys, who may be barely aware of concepts like licence, often with disastrous consequences.

The business of preventing underage brats from using vehicles rests mainly with parents, followed by the police and schools.

Also Read: Random Jottings