Survived Bangalore traffic last evening, I thought of
revisiting certain feedbacks from the police regarding the side effects of
certain laws. Talking and driving have been proved fatal many times on Indian
roads. Gone are the days when vehicle owners could be punished for driving
while listening to car radios only. Introduction of mobile phones, smart
phones, blue tooth etc have ushered in a new era when the lawmakers had to
think of prohibiting the driver from focussing his attention to other things like
talking while driving. True, talking
while driving can be extremely fatal. Particularly when I see drivers of public
vehicles like the buses, trucks or even
auto rickshaws, I feel extremely uncomfortable. The typical position of placing
the mobile phone on his ear and clipping it with a hiked shoulder proposes
every possibility of faulty driving and even losing mobile phone from the ‘grip’
if the driver has to cross bumpy roads with equal speed as an F1 driver. Each time
I am in the hands of such drivers, I keep on shutting my eyes off and on to
avoid viewing any nasty accident (fortunately my fear has still now remained a
fear only). But can the law really check this habit of talking while driving?
The recent Motor Vehicle Amendment Bill imposes a hefty punishment for repeated use for cell phones, hand held or hand free
device or any gadget which actually aides in communicating while driving. Cell phones,
i pods, GPs devices .....all are included in the red book now. The feedback
from the police in this regard was particularly noteworthy. They stated that it would be difficult to
prove driver’s guilt under this law. Cudos to the police understanding. How can
an officer on duty catch a driver who may be armed with a blue tooth on his ear
and asking the passenger for the direction? Why would GPS system be at all
installed in the cars? Above all, it needs to be understood that in many cities,
and even semi rural places (which are blessed with good transport systems),
auto rickshaw drivers are often seen to build up personal network among the residents
by exchanging their mobile numbers. Their services are available almost 24/7
and this is possible because drivers receive calls while ‘on job’ and if they
are driving other passengers, they instantly contact other fellow drivers to
provide service to the ‘customers’. Say it a boon of digital telecommunication era,
but this is the hard truth. These drivers may not be financially strong enough
to buy hand free sets like the upper middle class or upper class car owners.
But their business network remains alive for whatever device they have. Majority
of urban and rural population of India is still not properly introduced to GPS
system; “call a cab” is still a spreading
concept for many non metro cities and in this situation, the easiest way to
call for a transport is relying on the mobile phone number given by the good
old auto driver.
Added to this, the law even though can prove extremely good
to regulate for safe driving, poses
another question: the driver should not concentrate on communication through
electronic devices; what if the passenger does the same? Human beings cannot
keep their attention focussed on one thing for long if he/she is surrounded by
various communicating elements. Indulging
in communication with the passenger or through the communication device of the
passenger which is held by the passenger can also be equally dangerous. Many often
wise passengers advise others to keep on communicating with the driver while on
a long drive. This is a common method adopted by many to keep the driver awake
and to avoid any fatal accident which may be caused due to silent, boring and
even strenuous drive hours. The driver’s guilt again becomes a question of
burden of proof. As the law suggests, the driver needs to stop driving while
attending his phone calls. But what would be the situation when the passengers
are equally “disturbing” ? It needs to be remembered that while physical safety
like wearing seat belts, using helmets etc are extremely necessary for a safe
driving and the law must be punitive if the driver faults in these aspects, at the same time, checking on the driver’s
communication activities during driving needs a very high legal and
psychological understanding.
But I cannot stop praising the police officials who pointed
out this folly. Keep it up officers. If this is the attitude, misuse of law can
be prevented in a far better fashion.
Please Note: Do not violate copyright of this blog. If you
would like to use informations provided in this blog for your own assignment/writeup/project/blog/article,
please cite it as “Halder D. (2012),” To speak or not to speak while driving:A
confused law?”, 13th December,2012, published in http://cybervictims.blogspot.com/
