We are glad that the state Transport Minister s focusing on road safety measures. Road accidents have increased in the last few years with a sharp increase in the number of vehicles and of inexperienced drivers. As the minister said, the number of on-road vehicles of all categories of Manipur as on 31st March this year was 2,01,261. During the year 2011, a total of 692 road accidents occurred in Manipur, of which 83 accidents took place on National Highways and 28 on State Highways. A total of 63 persons were grievously injured. The recent accident where a pregnant woman and her husband were mowed down by a speeding Tata Magic car seems to be a case of both drunk and inexperienced driving. Everyone knows that, one could easily obtain a driving licence under the table through a racket involving officials of the Transport department. This is one of the factors responsible for road accidents. The Traffic police and the officials of the Transport department seems to be interested only in collecting unofficial revenue using fake challans from defaulters and there are not interested in investigating the fake driving licences. If the Minister really means business, he should institute an inquiry into the fake licence scam. His focus on road safety is more on state of art equipments like breath analysers, interceptors and speed radar guns, ambulance and cranes; and system management like development of web base data management system and emergency relief service system; and of course strengthening of traffic police and enforcement staff. What is more important is the level of awareness among our drivers on traffic does and don’ts, driving regulations including the rules of night driving. A few months back, we saw the efforts of the traffic police to educate drivers on the traffic lights at intersections. The traffic lights have stopped functioning since. Now 5 to 10 traffic police personnel are on duty at the busy intersections which was done by a single traffic policeman years ago. Yes, the number of vehicles and traffic has increased in leaps and bounds in recent times and it has reached unmanageable proportions. A scientific solution has become necessary by drawing in lessons on traffic from major metropolitan cities. But today we want to discuss about the level of awareness on traffic regulations among the new drivers and their education. Quizzing new applicants for driving licenses on traffic knowledge before issue of license by the Transport offices could be very useful. Secondly, distribution of leaflets containing traffic regulations at road intersections would be very informative to both old and new drivers. A special focus should be given on night driving. Our drivers with the exception of long distance truckers and bus drivers simply do not understand the rules of night driving and it is one of the major causes of road accidents. It is specially dangerous during blackouts. The lights on a car have two purposes: they help you see at night and they help other road users see you. The vehicle headlights have two setting: dip and full beam. When driving at night on lit roads one should have the headlights switched to dip. In urban areas in every country, drivers are always advised to use dipped headlights. This has to be grilled into the heads of our drivers. Horns are not normally used in cities. Instead, repeated switching from dip to full beam is used to warn other road users. The Highway Code states that one should not use any lights in a way that would dazzle or cause discomfort to other road users, including pedestrians and cyclists. One of the biggest night time hazards is dazzle, caused by the light from on-coming headlights. For newly qualified drivers, driving at night for the first few times can be a shock to the system, especially in busy traffic on unlit roads. Driving at night is a skill that needs to be learnt. As learner drivers one is not required to have lessons in driving at night however, for safety’s sake, one may find it useful to ask your instructor for a few night time lessons just be sure.
