Result of Following Traffic Rules in Kolkata

My colleague and I were heading back home after a long hard day. I was driving southwards on the E. M. Bypass. The Road is a nightmare during the day with traffic piling up on both sides. By night, the road poses a whole different set of problems. One, because it is such a wide road and quite a straight long stretch, motorists tend to step on the gas; two, having stepped on the gas and reaching breakneck speeds, dodging potholes that can swallow entire cars becomes a sort of game; three, the road becomes a paradise for truckers, speeding down either carriageway to transport goods before the city shuts its doors again to heavy vehicles in the morning; and lastly, absolute disregard for traffic laws is the rule on this so called Expressway.

That said, I made the stupidest mistake and that too and the last Crossing before my house. I stopped for a Red Light at the Ajoy Nagar intersection on the E. M. Bypass. My colleague egged me on to jump the signal, citing reason no four and while I explained to him the values of following traffic laws, I heard this screeching sound from behind. I immediately looked in the rear view mirror and as I noticed these two lights engulfing the entire mirror, I automatically engaged the 1^st gear, let out what would have been some swear words and the next thing we realised was that we were in the middle of the intersection. The Truck had made full impact with the rear of the car and pushed us all the way to the middle of the intersection, which was about 10 feet from the stop line, where we were waiting for the light to turn green.

Fortunately for the both of us, I am a bit paranoid about Seat Belts and so we were both saved from the impact. My colleague immediately got out of the car and headed over to the track to catch him before he fled from the scene, which is the common practice. By the time I got out of the car and headed to the truck, a crowd had gathered. It’s amazing how a crowd can appear out of nowhere anywhere in India, when some incident occurs, that to at any ungodly hour; it was a bit past midnight. Before the mob could take matters into their own hands, meting out what would surely have been a merciless thrashing to the Truck Driver, I intervened and asked everyone to step back till the Police arrived; and they did a couple of seconds later. That too was amazing, because the Police Picket is right beside where the accident occurred and there are cops stationed there 24x7.

So to my amazement, the cops arrive and ask around to know what happened; even though the accident occurred right before their eyes. Anyway the crowd, now had all sorts of stories to narrate, some said the light was green, some said, I had braked suddenly, but they all agreed that the Truck driver had braked suddenly and it was but obvious, that a truck that size with a full load of sand would not be able to stop suddenly. Of course when the cops asked the driver for his statement and enquired whether the light was Red or Green, his answer was “RED”. Well that says it all.

We were escorted to the Police station and what transpired there was a totally different saga altogether. All I can say is that we finally got out of there at a little past 2:00am and I have a little less trust for our Law Keepers and know why the rest of the country is wary of the very men who take an oath to Serve and Protect.

Here's another picture from the morning at the Work Shop.