What’s in a name?
Idea #3 - Display the professional driver’s name in the car, bus or truck
Official record pecks the number of fatal accidents in Velachery - Tambaram main road alone at 156 so far this year. That roughly averages to 5 fatal accidents per week. And we still have 4 more months to go. I am just quoting this particular road not because I live here, but because I could get the stats easily for this one. I think the story is the same for every arterial road in India.
Rash driving by cars and heavy vehicles is the primary cause for a majority of fatal accidents in India. This is not to say two-wheeler riders are an obedient lot. But they are at the receiving end for their mistakes on road. And thankfully their vehicles are not powerful enough to fatally knock down a cyclist or a pedestrian.
All said and done, it’s the professional car and heavy vehicle drivers who are playing their Yama role to perfection in Indian roads.
So what is the way out?
My argument is simple – if the vehicle is driven by a professional driver, display the driver’s name in a prominent place in the vehicle – be it a cab or truck or MTC bus. I don’t have any particular preference for the format, as long as it’s a standard one and readable without entering the vehicle. But it should be prominently displayed, preferably on the windshield.
Many people might be tempted to conclude that displaying the name facilitates easy arrest when the driver commits an accident. NO! Arrest is a legal enforcement after a mishap has happened. That’s not a smart way to prevent mishaps in the first place.
Professional drivers drive not because they want to, but because they are ordered to. And that reduces the pleasure factor in driving. Indian road conditions are anything but pleasure anyway. Driving vehicles which are not their own gives them a sense of anonymity and abandon, and they eventually utilize this to vent out their frustration. The consequences are there for all to see.
So why display a name?
Displaying a name is a very powerful positive reinforcement and inhibits violating the rules. It reduces the anonymity and enhances the responsibility factor. I realized this in my job. When I write a document, realizing that my name will be there as the author of the doc. in the first page for all to see increases my responsibility 10 fold towards what I write.
Why name?
Every individual – rich or poor, has a name. Everyone wants their name to stand for something positive. I am yet to find a person who would like to associate his name with anything negative or unpleasant. It also means it’s not ‘some MTC driver’ or some lorry driver but specifically Mr. Moideen or Mr. Michael or Mr. Madhavan, who will get bouquets and brickbats for their driving. Recognition is a powerful positive reinforcement for conformance.
Does this mean we will have no accidents at all?
Accidents will always happen, but I would expect less numbers. And anything less than 5 fatal accidents per week in Velachery –Tambaram road is something to cheer about.
August 30th, 2007 at 3:14 am
that would also facilitate one another thing… ppl would start calling names.. quite literally so. so, when a driver commits a mistake, some one would start yelling like ‘dei Prabhu **&~*#%$£… solltu vantiyaa… **&~*#%$£’ kind.
One easy way to escape from this would be to put your enemy’s name on display. So, for every mistake you do, your enemy would get bashed up.
August 30th, 2007 at 8:06 am
>>some one would start yelling like ‘dei Prabhu **&~*#%$£… solltu vantiyaa… **&~*#%$£’ kind
i have no problems with that. i think thats only fair and i think thats more effective than saying andha black color hero honda payyan kenathanama vandi ottraan
Licence illama vandi ottina enna pannanumo adhey dhaan name maathi vandi otradhukum pannanum
August 30th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
PK - IMHO, only you and I will care about the names…Pardon me.
Nothing is going to work unless people have self-control, which is unfortunately lacking.
So what if ‘Driver kothandapani’ is involved in an accident? Like Chakra said, only Yelling will result.
Very very difficult to police these things in a country like India. Honestly I don’t have any suggestions until the entire system is revamped ! Pardon me.
My advice - Watch out and be safe!
August 30th, 2007 at 9:15 pm
Nice post Prabhu.
I agree with Narayanan.
Each person has to know their responsibility. Just like you said. The present condition should be changed by some new punishments. These punishments must be a lesson to others who are spitting on the road, crossing the rules, etc….
August 30th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
Narayanan sir,
Have you ever had a chance when a seargent yelled your vehicle number?
Nobody likes their name to be yelled at by a stranger.
Thats precisely the point. Running an MTC bus or a national permit lorry gives the driver the much needed anonymity.
Just imagine how civilsed Yahoo chatrooms if only those with their real names will be allowed (you can ensure that in a number of ways).
Same is the case with roads.
August 30th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
kalai,
Thanks!
We have enough rules which cannot be enforced by the existing police force.
August 31st, 2007 at 12:38 am
Ya, u r rite Prabhu.
I mean to say that a new power which enforces this rules without fear has to come. Then only our country too become a place where discipline and cleanliness are maintained like foreign countries.
August 31st, 2007 at 5:02 pm
PK
Your reasoning about name implying pride in work is absolutely correct. However, in the case of a truck driver, the name will be displayed by the owner not the driver himself. So the truck driver will not put his name up voluntarily, rather he will (rightly) see it as a coercive measure. In such a case he will only resent his name being pasted there rather than feeling pride associated with it.
~nameless
September 1st, 2007 at 9:48 am
This happened sometime during 2001, when I used to live in Indira Nagar, Adyar, Chennai.
One evening , I drove my car (Zen) from home to the Odyssey bookshop. During that short trip, decided to take count of the dangerous/rash moves made by two wheeler riders and auto drivers wrt to my car.
That was a typical day and I found 2 cases of rash moves made by autos
and 12 cases involving two wheelers. Most of those involved overtaking rashly from the left. Worse were many cases where they were overtaking when the car/bus/truck was making a left turn close to the road.
I continued making observations over a period of time and found autos are a lot better in reality than two wheelers.
This made me get a wideangle rearview mirror to see better these two wheelers.
But of course, even of the two wheeler rider makes a rash move and gets knocked down by a bus, the news will report that accident as ‘bike gets hit by bus’.