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do-it-yourself - 10 October, 2008 | Traffic | Bangalore | Road Safety | BMTC | Action
Most of the low speed (city) fatal accident reports have a common phrase, "came under the wheel". A victim is usually crushed under these heavy vehicles resulting in serious injuries or death. But I have not heard of this happening with a Volvo bus or cars. Why? Are they not heavy enough?
Take a small test.
1. Get on your 2 wheeler and (under less-than-ideal, normal-city-conditions) drive next to a lorry, oil tanker, BMTC / KSRTC bus, private bus, Water tanker etc.
[flickr-photo:id=2928739016,size=o]
2. Now do the same next to a Volvo bus.
[flickr-photo:id=2927878907,size=o]
If you simulate an accident or a skid, where are the possibilities more of you coming under the wheel? In a Volvo you are pushed away, but in the others you are 'sucked' under.
That is the difference between an 'Off road Vehicle' and a 'city use vehicle'. GROUND CLEARANCE. This was not an aesthetic feature introduced by the designers, but a life saving device. And the same was ignored by our profit oriented, myopic manufacturers and government. A manufacturer sells only the chassis (to save on tax), on which a buyer either builds a 'minimalistic' bus body or mounts a tank. The only concern here is lesser cost. But we don't realise that it is at the cost of precious, innocent lives.
Why do we, inspite of the solution staring at us, talk of the impossible and always harp about social changes like driver awareness, inebriation etc?
All that is needed is a regulation to be brought defining the 'minimum ground clearance' for city vehicles and manufacturers like Ashok Leyland, Tata etc will have to comply. A one stroke, permanent solution? Maybe. But definitely a small step in the right direction.
But it is not so easy as there is a caucus colluding against it. After a lot of research, I had filed a PIL regarding this. If this topic has enough Aye votes, I will try to reproduce the same here or on my web site.
COMMENTS
hey, would like to know more about your PIL
silkboard - 12 October, 2008 - 18:15
First of all, welcome to Praja. And what a nice analysis type post to announce your arrival. Please do let us know more about your PIL. The logic here certainly makes sense, I never thought of it this way. Big or small, I don't know as we would need an analysis of all pedestrian death reports to figure the impact of this, but it definitely sounds like a step in right direction.
Interesting PIL
Naveen - 13 October, 2008 - 13:50
Hi,
Grateful if you cud share details about your PIL with us - you certainly seem to have a valid point when you say that ground clearance could be the cause.
PIL details
do-it-yourself - 14 October, 2008 - 07:55
I have just digitised the whole PIL papers, but have not hosted it anywhere yet. So till then, Please mail me on techno_sleuth@yahoo.com and I will send the zip file. Thanks for the feed back. If there is a Lawyer amongst us, I would be grateful for some advice on the possibilities of refiling the PIL.
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