Drink, Drive, Die

The recent road accident in Mumbai caused by a 27-year old drunken woman has sent shockwaves across the country. The irony was that she mowed down police officers who were conducting breathalyzer tests to curb such accidents. What is more shocking is her confession that not only had she two pegs to drink at a pub but was trying to take a swig from her beer can while ripping in her CRV at 120 kms/ hour when she ran over two cops—killing one and seriously injuring another.

Drinking and driving is hardly uncommon in India. Despite the traffic cops’ various initiatives and strict penalization to one of the crimes that claims more lives in the country every year, more and more youngsters who have easy money and flashy cars turn into delinquents first by consuming alcohol and getting behind the wheel and then turn into cold-blooded murders by plowing their fancy wheels onto innocent people who had left their home intending to return to their loved ones.

So what is it that causes people to drink and drive? Is it simply for kicks or is it to show off that you can hold your liquor? And at what price? At the cost of someone’s life? Thanks to the Indian judiciary the adage that justice delayed is justice denied is always proved right. While the media sensationalizes the news the first few times, it is all but forgotten in a few weeks time. The offenders walk away scot-free with faces hung down to show their remorse while accosted by the best criminal lawyers their money could buy.

The BMW incident (rehashed in the hit movie Dev D), or the Salman Khan-Kamal Khan road accident that claimed a few lives (thanks to Salman’s excellent PR, he remains in the news for all the wrong reasons), or even the recent road tragedy in Bangalore where a young executive of a reputed IT company driving on the wrong side of the road ran over an old man who had set out for his constitutional is all but forgotten in the public’s mind.

When I was in my first job, I ran over a girl. I was on my way to work and so was she (but apparently she was already late) and dashed across teh road from nowhere and right into my bike. I braked but by then the front wheel of my bike had run over her left leg. While I fell off my bike and was wondering what caused the fall (accidents happen in a jiffy), the girl was up on her feet, tapped her feet and ran across the road as if nothing had really happened. I was not hurt but just shocked at what just happened.

Even today, I am plagued by that incident. She could not have been more than 15 years old and I surmised that she was working in one of the nearby garment factories where a minute’s delay results in a loss of a day’s pay. It was the only time in my life when I had to inadvertently run over a person. I feel bad that I did not offer her help by taking her to a doctor or asking if she was okay. She had disappeared by the time I got my bike up. But I still wonder if her leg was badly hurt or how she endured the day at work being in so much pain.

The irony is that we live in a world where we would at least brake for a dog that is undecided about its destination but not for a fellow human being who is hurrying over to his/her destination. And our first reflexes on hitting someone is to flee and not pausing to find out if that person is okay and if he/she needs help. The most pathetic of all things that we are witnessing today is the lack of empathy and the rise of apathy for our own species.