There were six of them, 3 boys and 3 girls – Rohit & Sonam, Arun & Devika and Vaibhav & Pallavi. All in their late teens. They had just finished with their 12th final examinations. To celebrate getting free from stress of last school examinations, they had got together on the last day with some other classmates at the house of one of the group straight from examination hall. They had informed their parents before hand about having party and would be late in getting home. The atmosphere was totally carefree with lots of cold drinks and fast food laid out. There was some beer too but not much. They sang whatever, danced and mimicked their teachers. Time just flew and it was past 6 in the evening before anyone realized it.
As the party started breaking up, Rohit suggested to other five that they go over to the disco opened recently in the nearby satellite town. Everyone in that “beat it up” mood agreed without a second’s hesitation. So six of them piled into car lent to Arun by his father. It took them good part of an hour to reach there due to both ways evening traffic of people returning home from work. They all had informed respective homes about it and that they would be back by midnight or so.
They had a time of their life with no care or worry weighing on their mind. They did not drink much, just a little beer to stay in that place and lots of eats. It was around midnight that Sonam pointed out that they return home. So after a little while they all reluctantly set out for return. There was not much of traffic at that time. As they got half way with their loud singing alongwith the music being played and laughing, Arun found a tractor trolley overloaded with cattle feed moving slowly in front with hardly any space to overtake. The load was in gunny cloth bulging on both sides as well as rear of the trolley. Arun gave horn and flickered lights but to no avail. There was no choice but to follow this contraption slowly till opportunity arose to overtake it. They all were cursing the driver of tractor. There were no other vehicles except another car about a kilometer behind them. They all were getting very annoyed.
After a couple of kilometers the tractor lurched towards right. So Arun on seeing little space on the left accelerated to overtake it. It was only when he was almost parallel with the trolley that he noticed a truck parked right ahead of them with load of iron rods protruding from it. There was no time for him to stop the car even with harsh application of brakes. So car hit the parked truck or rather protruding iron rods at high speed. The rods broke through the windshield and pierced Arun and Devika who was sitting in front. The impact was so strong that rods went through the whole car coming out of rear glass. All the window glasses were shatterd with shards flying all over inside the car. The car got twisted jamming the doors. Rohit and Vaibhav were sitting on the sides with Sonam and Pallavi in middle of the rear seat. Iron rods went through the gap between front two seats and pierced both the girls too. Both the boys were hit by rods on sides and flying glass pieces. There was a lone roadside dhaba nearby and few persons there rushed to the spot. The car coming behind reached the spot in a few minutes and people traveling in it stopped but could not do much as the car was badly mangled. One of them called up police on the emergency number.
Though the police arrived soon enough but by the time they could organize rescue, it was too late. All six young lively persons were no more. The tractor driver unaware of what happened had carried on but was stopped at police check post ahead as police party from spot had sent message. The offending parked truck driver and his helpers were at the dhaba to have some tea. They as well as owner of dhaba had seen the whole accident happening.
This raises question – Who do we blame for this loss of young lives?
Is it overenthusiasm of the youngsters to live it up?
Is it lack of proper parental guidance or supervision?
Is it that tractor trolley driver overloading and endangering lives of other road users?
Is it the truck driver parking dangerously loaded truck with protruding iron rods without sufficient warning or space endangering lives of others using the road?
Is it authorities who though aware of such acts of neglect by vehicles do not take proper action to stop such breaches of law?
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21 comments:
I have read such incidents in the paper a few times & I don't understand why the govt allows any vehicle to carry any sharp objects in the open protruding out more than the length/breadth of the vehicle!! I mean this is crazy. Is our govt dumb/blind or cannot analyze what a hazard this is on the road?
There should be a strict law that specifies that no vehicle can carry any protruding objects which are more than the length/breadth of the vehicle. But, in this country sadly human life has no value and the govt doesn't bother about such things. We really need intelligent people in the law making system
i blame it on the self responsible behaviour.....we alws try to find out the guilty outside...but never search or claim the guilt inside...
youngsters today follow the trend of cool attitude and hence they lose their approach towards responsibility...
govt lacks in making and excuting strict laws...i think the self awareness and self aCCOUNtability lacks here...
PS : where is the tag???:-)
In this particular incident I feel its entirely the bad luck of youngsters as it could have happened to any mature person driving. As far the blame factor goes I think the truck driver who parked it on road should be blamed for the mishap that occurred. Hey jack sir from where do you get all these interesting stories?....have a nice day.
M@RIA :
It is so heart rending. We need not only intelligent but honest officials to enforce law effectively. Take care
ROHINI :
Self discipline is the best control but who instils it in the youngsters? Is it not the responsibility of parents, teachers and elders? We need honest officials to ensure safety rules are followed meticulously. Take care
PS : Both your Tags are ready and will be posted soon.
B S :
I agree that truck driver is the main culprit but so is the tractor driver for occupying whole of the road with bulging overloaded trolley. And then authorities who turn blind eye to these issues. As far as driving is concerned a mature person too could have met with accident but there would have been little more application of mind. Most of these incidents are related to those known to me and some are from newspapers. I just fill up blanks. Take care
We cannot rely on our government in any ways(I am sorry to say that)..Individuals have to take care of their own..To move out on the roads one should have 4 pairs of eyes on all the four sides plus a cautious mind...
Nothing else I can say...
The youngsters are to be blamed Jack...everything is done is such a hurry in our times that the consequences are often not so pleasing...
We want to communicate faster, travel sooner, do things in a jiffy and thus often watch life move out of our hands...
Awareness is the key again...an accumulated effort by all concerned should save such tragedies...
Parents keeping a better check on their kids and yet being friendly enough to guide them through harsh terms amicably...
Children nurtured in such a way that they realize they and their actions bear responsibility...they are liable to someone n hence must realize expectations of them....
Government needs to be more empathetic to such issues too rather than turn a deaf ear considering them to be a 'once in a while' incident...
Anyways, it is a sad sad loss, especially for the parents of these young kids on the threshold of life
this is what happening no one cares.today youngsters go in such a speed honking their horn.i dont blame others i am this only but thing to say is that we have become careless of many silly things in which we should not be
there is no guidence or supervisor fault because they would be not be knowing what is going to happen.
they 6 of them would also be not knowing
in this rapidly progressing life eveyone is in hurry so it should not be there
GEETA :
Sad facts of life. How I wish that we could bring some change in this kind of apathy. Take care
SURUCHI :
I agree mainly it was youngsters who threw all caution to winds while in a mood to celebrate. Parents have a major role to play in building sense of responsibility in their offsprings. I wrote a post on Parent - Children Relationship a couple of months ago. We need some honest officials to ensure that such gross violations endangering life of others are not allowed.
Take care
RINKAL :
It is so nice to hear a young person like you to say that youngsters should be more responsible but that is possible only if they are given proper guidence to understand this. Take care
PS : Examinations over?
real or not this shakes up the life in and out of me - i cant really have such reading done - you should rate it R or something!
The place where I work in Delhi has all sorts of vehicles running around in crowded places and driving is a hazard there. Yet no one does anything despite the fact that there are 6 schools running in the vicinity.
This is India...
THanks for visint me and commenting on my blog(s)
its necessary to get guidence of parents or anyother like i take guidence from you or ask you
my exams are over todya only and now basketball sessions are going on
A D :
I am so sorry to upset you but I can not sugarcoat hard realities of life. I am sure you understand. However I shall be little careful in future. Take care
GAUTAMI :
Welcome to my space. Hope you have read my older posts too. I look forward to your views on those too. These are hard facts and our apathy is to blame, isn't it? Take care
RINKAL :
How did the examinations go? I am sure you must have done very well. Now time to excel in basket ball too. Take care
How sad!
CHANDRIKA :
Yes, indeed it is. Take care
Nice post, sir.Making mind to move.
1. i will hold all these factors to be responsible. In the first place the young soles who have been a little too young to take up driving. it is possible that story could have been like six youngsters crushing an infant child beneath their car!
That brings us to conclude that parents be taken guilty too.
Since they were not too much drunk(assuming your account of details as the way it is), the System must bring methods to ensure that Driving is just not about managing wheels and gears but also some traffic sense and observance of good drivership.
2. the driver of lorry for parking his truck there.
3. the loaders of truck for putting those protuding shipment stretching the dimensions of the lorry. In my shipping industry it draws a huge penality.
4. System consist of all the above sets of people.
MANNU :
I agree with you that each one has contributed to this sad happening. We need to raise awareness level in each for playing their role with care. Take care
You hear of such incidents every other day in the papers and I often feel that here, as in the case of many similar incidents everything is lost once the blame game begins. When human life is at stake its about time that joint responsibility is assumend by the government, law enforcement agencies, vehicle drivers and civil society in general. Through collaborations there is hope that some solution may emerge.
Interesting read Jack.
GAURI :
Welcome to my space. You have very rightly pointed out that we have to take on joint responsibility to overcome this unwanted sad happenings. It has to start with parents who need to inculcate sense of responsibility in their offsprings and then move on to others like teachers, government, public and all. Hope you have read my older posts too. I will appreciate your views on those too. I will visit you soon.
Take care
Hmm...heart rendering scene ..i am more concerned about the loss of young youth...
in my opinion,if u r driving a vehicle $ u r overtaking to someone,u should 1st look by side if someone is coming frm otherside or not then accerate ur padel.
stick to driving rules n save ur self.:)
ESCAPIST :
Loss of young lives for whatever be the reason is always so sad and more so for avoidable reasons. Take care
RAHUL :
Welcome to my space. I agree we should abide by traffic rules for our own safety but who does? Jumping traffic red light is so rampat and traffic cops standing at junctions most of the times just ignore it. Pathetic state of affairs. Hope you have read my older posts too. Take care
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