Home Thinkers Crazy mules don’t follow traffic rules

Crazy mules don’t follow traffic rules

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Kathmandu, May 20, 2016: Our traffic police now have GoPro cameras so that they can at least have some proof when they nab those found driving on the wrong lane. Why do our police personnel need any evidence anyway? It’s either their way or the highway! Whenever there is a traffic accident, majority of the time, our traffic police ask both parties to make up and take care of their business on their own instead of carrying out a proper investigation and taking action against the guilty party.

It doesn’t matter whose fault it is. In Nepal, if your vehicle is bigger than the other then you have to pay or stay in jail and get free dal bhat for a while. If a motorcycle hits a cyclist even if it’s the latter’s fault, the motorcycle rider will pay the bills. If a motorcycle rams into a car, the car owner will pay even if it’s not his or her fault. And it’s the same story all the way up to the trucks that come from across the border.

Yes, size does matter in traffic accidents. Goliath has to pay David and there will be no exception unless you happen to be the son of a politician or a businessman. Then, you can run over anyone and get away with it after taking care of the medical bills and giving some compensation to the victim.

The only difference is that most of the public vehicles have their samitis and they pay the compensation while the driver is let go and allowed to run over somebody else next month. But if you are not driving a public vehicle, then it is better that your vehicle is fully insured or else you might go broke trying to make everyone happy.

Let us hope that someday, we will all have GoPro cameras on our head to make sure that not only us but our security personnel are also following the laws of the land when dealing with the common folks.

It seems that the company supplying the breathalyzer to our police made millions of rupees while the traffic police are now back to almost kissing when checking potential Ma Pa Se candidates. Yes, the devices have all broken down and it’s back to smell the alcohol by putting your mouth as close to the mouth of the driver. We have a zero tolerance for driving under influence in this land. That means, even a drop of alcohol and you will be fined for Ma Pa Se but who will check on the traffic police and other security personnel who are already tipsy when they carry out checking in middle of nowhere?

And don’t be surprised that in the future, our traffic police will have drones that will follow traffic violators around and even drop off the chit at their homes. And our shady businessmen can use the drones to deliver the kickbacks at the politicians’ doorstep.

Let’s hope that this ‘lane discipline’ campaign doesn’t sputter out like their other campaigns. Yes, we still can’t seem to prevent jaywalkers from the crossing the road even where there are overhead bridges. We Nepalis are busy folks. We don’t want to spend a few minutes using the overhead bridge when we can just sprint and cross the road. What about the vehicles plying on the road? It’s not our problem. If they hit us, they will have to pay. If they don’t run over us, the public bus drivers will curse at you and you can curse them back and we are all even.

The only time our folks don’t cross the road is when there are traffic personnel around. The traffic police should get rid of the zebra crossing because it seems that pedestrians have the least amount of rights in this land. If the vehicle is already at the zebra crossing then of course, it should move forward but if a pedestrian is already there, then the vehicle must slow down and let him or her pass instead of trying to run over or wiggle around like our motorcycles do. And when a vehicle is allowing the pedestrian to cross the road, the other vehicle on the side should not suddenly speed up and give the person a heart attack.

At the end of the day, our traffic police are doing the best they can with such limited resources. They have to breathe in fumes and dhulo mailo from the road. Most of them will have respiratory illnesses for life. Our government could save their lives if they spent some money on traffic lights in the valley. Maybe, ADB or World Bank should dole out millions of dollars to install traffic lights running on solar power. We won’t mind their foreign consultants taking half the fund for their consulting work. But of course the new traffic lights will break down in less than a year as our government is good at the job of using the most inferior of products and materials found on earth and then it’s back to square one.

Why is that our two-wheelers need to jump lanes, move from one side to another in less than a second and even ride on sidewalks when there are no traffic personnel around? Why are they in such a hurry? What happens if they are a minute late to wherever they are going? Will the world come to an end? Nope. It’s the same with our public vehicles. They stop in the middle of the street and expect the vehicle behind them to have super brakes that will work in less than a nanosecond.

Our traffic police are doing a fine job with lane discipline and Ma Pa Se. They still need to be aggressive against jaywalkers. Our college students could sign up for traffic volunteers across the city. We must have at least 100,000 students in this city. If only 1,000 sign up to volunteer each day, your turn only comes every 100 days. Maybe, all those who live in the valley above the age of 16 should be made to take mandatory classes on traffic rules.

And all of us can work as a volunteer for at least a day in a year in our neighborhoods. What traffic police needs for now is more boots on the streets. Our government doesn’t have the funds to recruit more traffic personnel because it has to spend money on development projects a few weeks before monsoon every year. Maybe, we should strap our boots on and be on the street and help our traffic personnel make our roads safer for all.