Just a few days back I started off my bike and drove though a busy road in Udaipur. Weather was quite chill that morning and I had packed up myself thoroughly. On a crossing I stopped my bike at red signal. After two or three seconds later a car stopped behind me. And to my surprise the car owner started honking. He was asking me to give way to cross the road. I had no choice so gave him the way and he started crossing in the red signal itself. The other vehicles and two wheelers also followed the suite. Meanwhile a girl, pedestrian, was also crossing the road and her eyes, ears and hands all were occupied in her cell phone. And she had no idea of how many vehicles were approaching to her. Anyways, she escaped from any mishap. The next moment the signal turned green and I left to my way.
This is a common story, almost every day we see at our roads and crossing of Udaipur. In my case nothing vulnerable happened, but is everyone lucky like that girl who managed herself and safely crossed the road. You might have seen on a TV channel like Discovery and Animal Planet when a flock of millions of birds fly and migrate. They fly keeping a minimum distance but they do not collide with each other. They fly in sync and remain safe. This is not the case with humans. We cannot drive on road in a tandem. We have got different vehicles, different speed limits, different direction and a different purpose to drive. We cannot be in rhythm on road. Due to this diversity in our driving habits; traffic rules were made to keep a control on us. Situation becomes worse when we do not follow them even.
When things fall out of place then another layer is laid down to teach us a lesson – how to behave and how to be a good human being. The initiatives are then taken by the Government and different NGO’s which are committed to improve the statistics of road accidents that happen every year. Road Safety Week is an example of such initiative.
The Road Safety Week is an initiative that is being observed every year from 1 Jan to 7 Jan. It is initiated by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways. The National Safety Council supplement the efforts of the Ministry, the Council from the year 2011 has started producing promotional materials like cloth banners, safety posters, pocket guides, safety films, etc to help its Members / Patrons to observe Road Safety Week effectively.
The state government at times modifies the date set by the Ministry and they declare a new date for the Road Safety Week in the state. This year the 24th Road Safety Week would be observed from 16th Jan 20 22nd Jan in Rajasthan. The Transport Department, Government of Rajasthan in collaboration with Traffic Police and other NGOs would work together to make this Road Safety Week successful. Many different activities would take place during the week to impart traffic and traffic rules awareness among the mass.
In the city like Jaipur the helmet was made compulsory a decade back, followed by helmet for pillion and they have also planned to launch the penalties for pedestrians who do not follow the rules on road. We, the people of Udaipur must take and learn the lesson from Jaipur and we should ask our self where we stand in terms of following the traffic rules and what driving sense we have on road.
Although it’s not too late yet, learn something new and enhance your knowledge during this Road Safety Week. Be an active participant and also help the administration to make this week a success.