Ilias Kanchan speaks to DOT :
Drivers, passengers and pedestrians must be made to obey the law – whether through law, intimidation or even through fines. No one in our country obeys unless there is supervision. This is why the public has to be brought under the law through the fear of the law. In Singapore, simple pedestrians are fined up to 500 dollars for disobeying traffic law, and because of this many are scared into following the law. And after some time, this has transformed into habit.
Recently, I saw a news report about a CNG accident where seven people died. Now the question arises that how can seven people sit inside a CNG? The driver must have had difficulty braking because of so many people. Local politicians are to be blamed for the free and illegal movement of these small vehicles.
They are letting these vehicles on the road without any sort of training in the name of giving jobs to the poor. But in reality, they are indirectly pushing these people, and others, towards death. They aren’t worried about people dying because dead people can’t vote after all! Why worry about them? And so, from highways to alleyways, many lives are being lost every day.
Road accidents are inevitable if vehicles of different sizes, like CNGS and buses, ply the road simultaneously on the same lane. This is why the authorities must be zealous and prepare a new lane system. The entire road and transport system has to be overhauled and brought into this, although it is the government and authorities’ responsibility to give training and supervise.
There is no alternative to training each and every driver individually. Accidents will never decrease unless they are trained and made aware. Although they have spent all their capital on buying a vehicle and have grown through it, it doesn’t allow them to ply their vehicles on the road however they see fit.
Ilias Kanchan is an actor and road safety activist
Interview by Sourav Noor
Translated by Abrar Hussain