The infuriating hit and run Porsche case in Pune, is still on people’s minds, and now another case of hit an run, this time in Mumbai’s Worli, hit headlines, raising serious questions about road safety. Mihir Shah, son of a Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) leader, is accused of hitting a couple on a scooter and dragging the wife on the bonnet of the car instead of stopping the car, resulting in her death.
He has been arrested and sent to judicial custody. Victim’s husband, on a video, said that if the driver of the vehicle had stopped the car, his wife would have survived.
Earlier this month, a four-year-old girl died when a bus dashed the scooter her grandfather was driving to drop her to school. An uproar followed over rash driving and it was pointed out that he was a contractual driver. Before one can dwell, think and respond to one road accident death in Mumbai, or perhaps any other city in India, another one occurs.
According to the Maharashtra Economic Survey recently submitted in the assembly, road accidents have gone up by 34%. Compared to other cities in India, Mumbai does not have the highest numbers in terms of fatalities in road accidents, and yet innocent lives are lost regularly and frequently.
Guidelines and laws about road safety
Several laws and regulations govern traffic violations, driving errors and mistakes and negligent driving and drunk driving. Over the past few years, governments have brought in measures such as e-challans, CCTV cameras to record violations and have even proposed linking bank accounts to licenses.
Despite technology getting better at recording violations, even as simple and common as jumping a signal, the violations continue.
Over the years, the laws against drunk driving have gotten stricter. Every weekend, at all roads that lead to popular “hangout” areas, Mumbai police does nakabandi for stricter checking to catch drunk drivers.
For drunk driving that results in death, the driver is booked under various sections of the Motor Vehicles Act and the Indian Penal Code. One would assume that when so many laws and strict punishments are mandated, the incidents would come down and there would be fear of law before taking the wheel and attempting reckless stunts.
But figures suggest otherwise.
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Delayed justice: Poor conviction rates and pending cases
Since the Porsche hit and run case, one of the most important issues to be discussed is the role of law in road safety. Leaving the controversy about whether juveniles should be tried as adults in cases like these, there is little doubt that justice needs to be delivered for victims swiftly.
A report by News18 on the “Crime in India report,” says, “The numbers issued by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in its annual report ‘Crime In India’ show that a total of 2.45 lakh deaths were reported in the country between 2018 and 2022 in hit-and-run cases, while just 33,212 cases reached convictions during the same period.”
IPS officer Meeran Borwankar, former DG Bureau of Police Research & Development, wrote in the Indian Express raising this very issue of how pendency of these cases and poor conviction rates has a direct impact on the actual magnitude and complacency/carelessness/over confidence of people to engage in reckless driving.
“However, the current scenario is just the opposite. ‘Crime in India (2022)’ published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) shows that more than 90 per cent cases of deaths due to negligent driving and hit and run cases are pending in courts with the conviction rate being as low as 30 per cent in metropolitan cities. It is only slightly better in the rest of India.”
Poor road safety: Unending suffering of families of victims
Numbers tell a story but they don’t tell the misery and pain of families that go through the trauma of losing their loved ones every single day. And every single day feel helpless and angry and sad for not being able to get justice for them.
Bharti Shah, whose daughter died in a crash, is one such mother who is trying every single day to get justice. Himadri Sharma, a budding photographer and an artist died when a truck hit her scooter on March 25th 2022 in Bengaluru. The driver sped away and Himadri was dragged and suffered several fatal injuries.
Bharti followed up with the case relentlessly. However, the driver was acquitted few weeks ago and Bharti was disappointed and shocked. But she does not want to give up. “A beautiful life just ended because the driver fled the scene. My daughter was a national treasure. She was talented and worked on so many projects. Her book had just come before the accident. And now the courts have acquitted the driver saying the prosecution case is not supported. I am definitely going to pursue it but it is not easy. Nobody helps families of victims of road accidents. I am a teacher, it is not easy for me to pursue legal matters, attend court hearings. But we have to do it again and again.”
Daily lives and adherence to road safety measures
While it is clear that in cases of hit and run, when the driver flees the scene, in most cases the victims don’t get help. The golden hour to save a life is wasted and the victims often succumb before getting treatment.
However, in other cases, people die while overtaking, speeding and going in the wrong lane. In the past two weeks, at about 745 in the morning, the peak hour for school time, I witnessed two different incidents directly connected to road safety.
On narrow lanes, a school bus (and several behind that one) were stuck as many bikes, auto rickshaws were all interlocked. Hardly anyone wore helmets, not even the kids. After a long argument, and some good Samaritans who kept their cool, stepped in and vehicles reversed and moved eventually. Tempers and tensions were high. Any split second there could have been a physical fight or worse an accident.
Another time, as the autorickshaw was going on a narrow road, and another was approaching from the opposite side, a biker tried overtaking the other autorickshaw and came right under our auto rickshaw. It all happened so fast, that I need to thank my stars and the tremendous presence of mind of the driver who ensured that our auto did not topple completely. The biker, fully aware of his reckless overtaking, got up, picked up the bike and left.
Now in such cases, it would just take a split second for a fatal accident to occur. However, when everyone is pressed for time, and many have little regard for safety precautions such as seat belts or good quality helmets, it becomes a lethal combination of panic, aggression and carelessness and overconfidence.
The case of the four-year-old girl’s death is a case in point. While the bus driver may have been negligent in driving, the people on the scooter had not worn helmets. Undoubtedly, there must be action taken if reckless driving is proven. However, we as a society too must put safety and sanity before haste and rushing and reaching at any cost. Only we can renegotiate the fast pace of Mumbai so that our loved ones are safe on the roads.
What we need, urgently, is implementation of law, swift trials and prosecutions and increased compliance of individual safety measures. And yes, law and order that ensures hit and run cases are dealt with strictly and justice meted to the victims at the earliest.