Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Speed thrills, but Kills!

Speed thrills, but Kills! How many times have we read this at the traffic signals and how many times have we ignored it? Have we ever given it a thought? Well I haven’t and I am sure there are many more like me who have never given a shit to it.

I love speed. Whenever I am on bike I feel like a superhero who can do whatever he feels like and I ride fast-very fast. I believe that bikes and cars are meant to be driven fast. I love to drive in a zigzag manner. I just can’t explain how much I enjoy speeding just before the humps and the feeling when bike jumps over them is thoroughly ecstatic. It is a mixture of thrill, excitement and pride that I have done something which generally people cannot do or don’t want to do or don’t have the balls to do. But not any more. Now I am forced to think that what have I gained by riding fast, jumping over the humps?? Confucius says- we don’t understand things when told to us and learn only either from our mistakes or from others; like I did.

It was a fine Tuesday morning. My friend’s cousin took out his dad’s car at 4’o clock in the morning (without his parent’s consent since they were out of town and we guys consider it against our pride to take advice from our sisters) and went out for a stroll. Just like any other adolescent lad he was driving fast. He was with one of his friends. Suddenly a bicycle came in front of him; he tried to evade but couldn’t and hit the bicycle from behind and ran over the man who was riding it. Then while trying to run he hit the car into an electric pole and smashed the wall next to it. His friend suffered major injuries in the head and he had minor bruise. The man on the bicycle died on the spot. He was some 23 years old or so. A life so precious was snuffed in seconds!

Till now I had just read in papers about the hit and run cases but the first time I realized its seriousness was when the same had happened to someone I know. This made me think about the consequences of driving fast. While driving we feel that our pa owes the road and we can drive in whichever manner we feel like. After being aware of this accident I asked myself a few questions which I couldn’t answer. Why do we do all this?? Do we consider driving fast, jumping over the humps or wheeling as our style statement?? Do we drive fast because we love speed, or we do it just to impress girls or is there some other reason behind it?? Do we drive fast to save our time?? Well, I don’t think it could be the reason because anyways we will get stuck at the traffic signals. Ok even if we save some time by driving fast, it doesn’t makes any sense to me because we are taking a huge risk by driving fast which is not at all worth doing. I don’t think driving fast is an act of chivalry anymore; neither will I be getting any award for the valor. I prefer driving slow rather than regretting the follies later in my life.

All I have to say is that I have learned a very big lesson from this and I promise myself to drive slowly, stop jumping the bike over humps and stop ridding in a zigzag way. And just a piece of advice to all. We all have heard this 1000 times and also have ignored it 1000 times - people please drive slowly, follow the traffic rules and don’t drink and drive. You will not gain anything by doing so. Life is short, don’t make it shorter.

Speed is 5 letter word and so is Death.
Slow is 4 letter word and so is Life.
Better late than never.

16 comments:

Anupama Garimella said...

I think I am the only youngster who drives very slowly.. I always stay on the left :) Good point you made. Keep writing :)

Amritorupa Kanjilal said...

thank you for this very conscientous post laddu... i walk a lot and i know how scary it is for pedestrans. its not in your hand,really, when a driver goes beserk and turns you into a spot on the road. very scary.

Quaintzy Patchez said...

Glad you are learning my dear. :)

Safety first - by that we don't just mean _your_ safety. We mean others' safety too :)

Identify with Anupama and agree with Little Girl Lost

laddu said...

@anu,prachi....

well i feel its mostly we guys who drives fast...gls drive slowly only..anyways it was all....its gud yaar dat u ppl drive slowly....

@little girl lost....

ya its not in our hands while walking. but we can take some precautions while driving atleast....

Unknown said...

"I love speed." Dude you gotta be kidding. You are the second slowest rider i know after Jeetu.

laddu said...

@ Alan....

Oh really!! well you haven't seen me den..nyways i don't care about being tagged as a slow rider....

Goofy Benedict said...

You sound like my dad, and much as i'd like to tell him this about this attitude of his i don't have the balls to, however as you are not my dad, i can tell you with complete conviction that you are a blithering idiot.
Driving fast doesn't get you killed, driving rashly, or more like driving stupidly gets you or others killed
Most accidents don't happen because ppl drive fast, they happen because some people drive like dorks on highways, without realizing that their stupidity causes problems for others, that their indecision, causes others to make unwise decisions to avoid hitting them.
There's nothing wrong with driving fast, it's driving indecisively that's wrong. So if you ask me, go ahead and zig-zag but look into the mirrors first. Go ahead n jump speed breakers, but wear an abdomen guard first.

laddu said...

@Goofy..
you are sounding exactly the way i used to before this incident..its not just the matter of your safety, its matter of others safety too....

Anonymous said...

that is a great thought.. we should atleast learn from mistakes be it ours or better if others..

thanks for visiting my blog and making me one happy blogger.. :-)

Bhavana said...

hmmm makes sense but even if u r driving slow, someone might hit u n soemthing might hapen to u(the cycle fellow was not fast i presume)...see being alert and in control over ur vehicle is more important. Ofcourse speed also plays an imp role. Gotta be a careful driver first. if everyone is alert n in total control over their vehicles, accidents can b reduced to a large extent.

Goofy Benedict said...

safety of everybody on the road - slow drivers, fast drivers, pedestrians, regular fauna, irregular fauna, and anything else that you can think about will not be assured by driving slow. It's important to drive intelligently.
Speed has very little to do with it.
You wont randomly burst into flames, or crash into ppl or objects just because you drive fast, accidents are because or other factors that are not in your control. Also like bhavana pointed out, in your story it was the slower one who died

Unknown said...

Haven't seen you? You don’t know who I am, do you?

laddu said...

@ Goofy....
ya the slower one died but it was the driver's fault who was driving fast..only if he would have been driving slowly he would have not killed him..i spoke to the driver
i agree with u dat we should drive intelligently but at the same time speed do matter..

@Alan..
i have a vague idea abt you..not sure though..

Goofy Benedict said...

No point talking to you man, u're talking like a 55 yr old guy, you won't change your views even if because you drive slow you end up killing others or getting killed

i'd just like to say driving slow and driving safe are two diff things, n the roads will be much safer when ppl like you realize the difference

laddu said...

i understand the difference b/w driving slowly n driving safely..
i am not denying the fact that even if u drive slowly u can kill someone..wat i am trying 2 say is that the probability of accidents are much higher wen u r driving fast....how much safely u drive but there is always a chance of accident wen driving fast if not by ur fault den by others fault.. and i am not talking baselessly..i have seen something happening which made me think all this..

and as i have said earlier ppl dont realize things when told to them. u r making my point stronger. thanks yaar.. i realized wen i saw something happening to someone i know. hope u will also realize it soon..

Dory The Fish said...

@ Goofy Benedict... are you actually telling us that driving fast should not be associated with making mistakes? driving slowly may not be the solution according to you, but skill has it's limits; it's always brought down because of speed... Indecisions, stupidity etc are all fallouts when you drive faster than you think you can. That's the indecisiveness you shouldn't have...