Depends where it happens. If two trains collide in Germany there may be only crumpled steel involved. Two trains collide in India and hundreds of lives are lost. Mauritian life preservation norms seem to be closer to those of the subcontinent. Well at least for ordinary citizens if we look at recent severe road accidents: sugar truck flattening a bus and a lorry killing 12 passengers of a van two days ago.
We don't have to brace ourselves for more horrific events like these if we start managing better.
27 comments:
Its simple dude,,,the authority just dont care because they never travel in the bus or van and so do their family..
SPEED BRACKERS SHOULD BE INTRODUCED IN ALL BUSES AND LORRIES....
Can you give us an outline of the better management you propose with respect to road accidents ?
@ Anonymous of Jan 14,2011. 7.09am
I am ignoring the first part of your reaction.I think the latter part is being addressed by the new regulations coming into force Feb 2011-Construction and Use of Motor Vehicles regulations.
"Better management" spans above many many things, some remotely related to the roads themselves, dear Anonymous of January 14, 2011 7:09 AM. Like these:
- Policing and enforcement: The question is to get enough police officers out on the roads at all times - considering the introduction of traffic wardens might be a good start. You may have casse-nissa of pose-breakers (go at Chaumière Road in QBornes between 8:00 and 09:30 on week-days for a demonstration of a pair of policemen in uniform busy having a nap near the private crematory) and other corner-cutters (go to Mahébourg's police station to witness the parking practices of the policemen themselves, as if double yellow lines are actually meant for allowing parking of police vehicles) of all sorts. Dealing with them starts with the intorduction of proper HR practices for motivating them, and a thorough selection exercise - including psychological
tests to detect potential candidates that will bring the Force (as they proudly call it) in disrepute with all sorts of misdemeanors / crimes that regularly grace our tabloids are associated with weak self-control: murder, pedophilia, rape, corruption, etc.
More to come...
Continued from above:
- Speed breakers: not needed / useless. Why? As our dear Dr Proag of UoM rightly (and bloody chillingly) says, If you keep the roads in a state of non-maintenance, then you don't need anything else to break the speed, together with the suspensions of the vehicles using them. You want speed to be curbed, try putting many many more cameras everywhere, and empower the police officers to give on the spot fines for dangerous drivers, i.e., not even going above speed limit, but also driving in potentially dangerous conditions / inappropriately: encroaching on continuous lines in bends, overspilling on stop lines, forcible entry / right-turns, failure to give proper / timely / correct signals / overfilled caissons / defective lights / , etc. Traffic calming can be achieved with other devices that humps. Try looking at chicanes and other devices that will prevent large vehicles from entering populated areas.
- Tests on vehicles: have you taken a ride in a Tata bus of 2007 lately? You should observe how these drivers toil to steer these things round corners: they can't unless they encroach on other lanes. And these buses are, according to NTA's fitness certicate, fit for mauritian roads? And how did NTA assess and confirm that with its decrepit infrastructure? How on earth can an Authority deliver a fitness certificate when actually only an unsafe and illegal maneuvre allows that bus to swerve around corners? Needless to mention lorries fitted with caissons modified in the most artisanal ways to accomodate for above-limit weights and defective lights (signal and stop) which never get detected nor punished...
- width of roads: have a drive along Hugnin Road or Seeneevassen Road(RDA classified roads) and you'll appreciate the hard work of our road and municipal authorities delivering permits for all sorts of activities, but remaining blind to all sorts of encroachments on road reserves, allowing vehicles to cross in very dangerous conditions. I hear that political interference into these matters have allowed many people to escape demolition orders. So until when will we continue to be governed by spineless authorities?
- road users: Paretto analysis tells you to attack the major causes first: Page 32 and Charts 3 and 4 of these offical stats show that more than half of all taxis and almost all buses get involved in accidents in their lifetime. So, where do you need to be more stringent in delivering licences / permits? What about pedestrians? They can be understood to overspill in crowds when planners fail to notice that bus stations will inevitably be filled at peak times and forget to provide for hand-rails for containing them inside safe walking zones and also forget that placing taxi-stands near these traffic centres compounds the problem. They can also be understood when some authority has failed to deal with buildings and actual road furniture (poles in the middle of footpaths is a nice example) encroaching on pathways. But they can't be forgiven when they walk outside footpaths / fly-over bridges, walk without paying attention to traffic and take shortcuts and cross roads anywhere without warning.
Anything else that you can think to add to the above?
This report shows where most fatalities (red squares) and serios accidents (blue ones) occur on Dodoland roads, and at which times of the year and day. So now you are warned: keep cool, obey the road furniture (markings, signs, warnings and limits) and remain alert / sober if your want to reach your destination.
In any case, fines neither increase safety nor help in saving lives...
According to Baichoo, fines will decrease speeding AND INCREASE safety er..er sorry, funds in government coffers; he does not want to spoonfeed road users by signalling speed detecting cameras!
This report ends by stating
"And seat belt use, the most basic defense in a crash, reached an all-time high of 84 percent in 2009.
Several states have allowed police to stop a vehicle for failure to wear a seat belt even if the officer doesn't detect another driving violation like speeding".
Dodoland is therefore well in advance when it comes to giving power to its policemen to stop any vehicle at any time. Thus, we have among the best laws in the world.
But our tabagie-style of management means that we still have to lament AFTER allowing people to kill themselves at the wheel...
This is an example of Engineers contributing to planning for the future - how many of our local infrastructure can be rated 'A'-class?
This is strictly NOT for Dodoland, where the local CRPE and IEM are more keen to organise and invite their comrades to gala dinners and random speeches. We are yet to hear these organisations on the rise of minor and fatal accidents, failure of scaffoldings / small buildings in construction, health and safety issues on construction sites...
Cameroon bans after-dark traffic in an attempt to cut down the 35% of fatalities of drunk-driving at night...
Copy Dodoland, copy!
It can be recalled that it is after speed cameras were introduced that NTA realised that some plates could not be read because they were not in conformity with regulations (note the irony: it's NTA's job to enforce the regulation...), and then tried to "sell" the forceful introduction of retro-reflective number plates as a means of curbing road accidents.
It's now clear that their only purpose is to enable speed cameras to read properly from them.
As Jayen says here: "On gouverne avec une plaque L"
PAF!
Mo pense zot sitiasyon dezespere: si nu konsider zot popilasyon ek kantite dimunn ki mor lor nu sime isi ena 5 fwa plis dimunn mor la ba par tet dabitan. Ena duk la.
Do you want to reduce your probability of being involved in a serious accident? Try to avert these roads/junctions.
And try not getting in the way of a CNT bus... specially those of 2007 year?
MPs arguing about what's happening with one attempt to order 65 buses: they were prepared to buy buses that costs Rs2.78m a piece but not those that will set you back by Rs4.03m.
I'd love to see the specs of these buses to check among other things if there are equipped with rollover bars.
This is how to treat people who allow sub-standard buses in your country.
Thank God no lives were lost. But questions are being raised.
Garbage truck capsizes kills one injures two. While over 100 feared dead at temple in Kerala because of poor safety.
Mr Casteres reminding us that road fatalities and insurance costs are rising following the folly of removing road cameras... May I pursue the argument further by insisting that until we have police force that actively enforces the existing laws - not relying on cameras alone - we will continue counting the fatalities. 49 dead already in less than 4 months - on this trend, the record will surely be broken this year.
For my part, I had the immense shock of witnessing a 4x4 with black-tainted windows and under-carriage LEDs charging through a red light this morning, cutting the path of a schoolboy who had just engaged on the cross-here, with an onlooking "traffic" who did not budge at this sight. I lowered my window to loudly applaud this police officer, whilst callously hoping that his own family member gets to live such a situation... Imagine all the people who watched this scene: the brainless drivers' growing sense of impunity, and the other law-abiding ones with increasing disbelief in the rule of law - choose your side.
Kuma kumans lane 4 mor? Ena bez la.
Dodoland, Dodoland: on the road to ruin?
May I just hope you never get to hear the sounds at 3:31...
2 bis fer aksidan frontal: 15 blese. Tiu.
Uh oh... all the MPI, MPU, RDA and TMRSU reports have vanished in the wake of the transition from gov.mu to govmu.org... So sad...
They're not anywhere else?
Tired of the dreary pa-ferr-sesi-pa-ferr-sela on the radio everyday? Why not start this way?
At least, do something better than telling people 'vinn faire travail-la to-mem g*g*tt!' that has blessed my ears with this morning, when someone told the stand-by man-in-blue about the buses running the red lights and causing obstruction in front of Clarisse House...
If anyone would want to save lives, probably start enforcing existing regulations regarding modifications to the structure and mechanical system. See, even small ones can have fatal consequences.
This reminds me of an airline CEO who promised savings on maintenance after a hedging mess.
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