Estimated reading time: 14 minutes
Aamir welcomes all and asks people to imagine that every day in the country a jumbo jet plane crashes with 380 people and asks the audience what would be the reaction of people, media and everyone ? A man speaks of getting much shocked and another boy speaks on trying to know the reason for it ? Aamir informs that in our country plane is not crashing but every day 380 people are dying because of road accidents.
One of the boy from audience speaks that the people are used to of the accidents and made it as part of life. Another woman speaks of Indian mentality and blames the destiny. Aamir speaks of his believe that these are not accidents but murders. The first experience is of Shailesh and his wife Shama Chopra who settled in England after marriage and they were having all amenities of life. But, they longed for their country and came back to India in 2011 and within one year their life got upturned completely. Shailesh is seen in the studio with Aamir and speaks that the accident happened after 7 1/2 years of marriage. He speaks of coming to India because of love for her country and he calls her vivacious person with full of life. She was the centre of the family and after the incident they were all now got much separated. During the accident day, it was 12:00 noon and they were going in a hired taxi and at a junction a BMW was riding at more than 140 kmph and hit their taxi. He speaks that their taxi flew in their air after impact and just few seconds later, he found Shama dying on the road and even Shama was pregnant. Shailesh suggests that the BMW driver was young and even didn’t have a license and wonders how could his family has given him that car without suggesting him to be careful with it. He speaks of being there at the wrong time and wrong place and it looked from the driver’s rash driving that some one has to die that day and they were victims. He speaks that 4 lives have gone that day – Shama, mother-in law, and the driver Sanjay Gulati, and the unborn child. Shailesh speaks that the driver, young boy went on to write his exams for the next 10 days. The police didn’t do any thing and the accident happened on 5th May and on 15th May, the driver went to court and got bail. Aamir informs the youngsters that car’s purpose is to take you from one place to another and he urges that parent’s role is much important to inform their children. Aamir consoles Shailesh and gives support.
Aamir speaks that in last 10 years in India, more than 10 lakh people have died in road accidents and many lives are destroyed because the family of the deceased bore the brunt. Another accident incident is highlighted which happened on 4th March 2013, village Talpandi Bairov in Jalandhar district of Punjab, there was an accident with school bus and many children have lost their lives. The accident happened in the morning and because of impact was deadly that the bus broke into pieces and 14 children have lost their lives from 2 villages. Now, its more than 1 1/2 yrs but whether time can heal the families grieve. Aamir speaks with Dr. Kamaljeet Soi who is Road Safety expert and has looked after that accident incident. He informs that incident is not an accident and speaks that 3 things are involved – machine, driver and road and all of them failed. The school bus was having lot of problems – tyres were withered down, chassis was bad and it got headon with the truck bus which had 5000 brick laden in it. Thus, the impact was very big. He speaks the bus didn’t have yellow color paint which was needed for school bus and according to supreme court guidelines it should have been there. The speed was 80 kmph and there were no seat belts and the driver didn’t have license and found drugs in the bus. He speaks of the term Car-o-bar where people becomes intoxicated and then drives the car and is seen in India. He speaks that it is not an incident but murder and authorities are not concerned about it in the last 10 years. Aamir speaks that bus was in bad condition, driver was not suitable to drive, and the road was dangerous so the accident was bound to happen and cites that similar situations are seen in many accidents. He speaks of the grieve for losing children.
In 40 % of the accident cases, heavy motors – truck, trailers are seen and Aamir speaks with Apneet Bakshi and moved to Gurgaon after marriage and she was originally from Delhi. She got a call from police in Delhi that her husband met with an accident there and admitted in hospital. She speaks about the accident happened with a truck which had iron rods and her husband who was driving a car didn’t see the rods and at a turn the accident happened and the rods went inside the forehead and he died instantly. She calls her late husband as her life. She asks who is to be blamed for her family’s loss ? Aamir speaks that iron rods (saliya in Hindi) coming out of the truck is illegal and informs that 9,000 people die every year with accidents involving those rods. That’s why he is terming them as murder and not accident. Aamir gives an analogy sketch and asks people there if he takes out a gun and starts shooting there randomly and accidentally it hits someone there and he dies then it would be murder or accident. The audience replies murder. He cites that the situation in highways is like a loaded gun or not let’s find out and shows an AV. The AV shows overloaded trucks riding on the roads and the truck drivers speak of the dangers. The drivers didn’t get license and transporters speaks that if you give money then you can get the license even at home. The truck driver speaks of working 24 hrs or more than 2 days continuously and even without food and sleep. He needs to become intoxicated and high in that situation and also gets extra wage if he drives the truck fast and reach the destination faster.
Aamir speaks with truck drivers in the studio who say that the AV is right and they inform that the person is given the job to maintenance and soon he will become a driver. Another driver speaks that 99 % of the licenses are duplicate and drivers have license of many states and even can get a license by courier if paid money for it. The senior driver cites the reason of drinking is lack of sleep and suggests that drivers feels lost in brain functioning but their eyes are open. Vicky another driver speaks that 80 % of the total drivers take the step of intoxication. Another driver speaks of giving money like 500 INR at tolls and they will not check how much the truck is loaded, and even they didn’t check the license. He informs of getting 2,200 INR some years ago and now gets 8,000 INR and has to take care of his family in that financial resources. Aamir asks about overloading ? A driver informs that 15 tonnes is allowed as load but the owner/transporter puts more than 15 tonnes which can go to 50 tonnes. They inform about the hazards of overloading – tyre can get burst, the truck can deflate and can overturn on either direction (left, right) and the car following it can bore the brunt as well. They speak of not having good life. Aamir speaks that heavy motor driving training is not done by drivers, license is not obtained in right manner, most of the drivers drive in the influence of intoxication, overloading and the truck didn’t have fitness and all these things happen at the highways. Aamir thanks them.
Aamir speaks with Bhim Wadhwa – All India Motor Transport Congress and informs that most accidents 40 % happen with heavy vehicles and cites the reason which he spoke just earlier. He asks Mr Bhim on what are the rules his organization has set-up and if the members didn’t follow then they will penalize. Bhim takes his organization responsibility as well in those incidents and he informs that overloading is done by the higher authorities and suggests that if not overloading then its not economic viable. Aamir speaks that first wrong step is the truck is not in good condition, second is that driver didn’t have correct license, third is overloading, and the fourth one is driver is intoxicated. Aamir asks why his organization has done regarding iron rods coming out of truck ? Bhim speaks of now the trucks longer in length and then he informs that the govt is not enforcing the owners. Aamir suggests that owners can do the right thing by themselves and then Bhim ji speaks of changing the system. Aamir speaks that India have to grow higher and we should not see small profits and instead see the benefits of the country. Aamir speaks with Satish Sahasrabudhe (Additional Commisioner of Transport, Maharashtra). Satish speaks that without test giving license is a very rare thing and Aamir then asks audience and learns that 90 % of them haven’t given test. A young lady informs that RTO Andheri has approved of her test after she drove some distance. Satish speaks that economy of transporter dictates overloading and if there is law then this problem can be avoided. Bhim ji gives a suggestion that car and license should be taken so to reduce such crimes. Aamir hopes that the transport dept will act strictly with enforcement and will help in saving lives and reducing incidents.
Aamir speaks with Dr. Rohit Baluja (Institute of Road Traffic Education) and suggests that in many accidents drivers are blamed and really whether it is case or some other reason. Rohit ji speaks that 30 to 40 % of the accidents happen due to environment faults, traffic engineering, road design faults. He shows an AV to Aamir – big potholes which can shake the car, potholes in Ludhiana are shown where many cars/bikes fell and also shows the road designs where trucks are seen toppled down and on many occasions the driver’s fault is to be blamed. He informs that pedestrians are not given respect in our country and doesn’t give them the way. He speaks of testing 5 Indian cars of different models to simulate crash scene and they did the test in Germany with the agencyYeh Dua Hai Meri (Global New Car Assessment Program) and they did two individual tests. The tests were applied on cars from India and the results were very surprising and David Watts joins on the show via 3G link. All the cars got 0 star which means that if the crash happens then the passengers will not be able to survive while the 5 star means minor injuries. David speaks of an interesting result with one of the cars when air bags were added to it then its ratings increased from 0 to 4 stars. He informs that air bags are worth 50 USD a piece and for two pieces it would be 100 USD and this is the cost to the manufacturer. Aamir speaks that every car should be having air bags and suggests that we should have a law in India that without airbags or strong body the cars cannot be sold because we don’t want to compromise on safety.
The experience of Kanhaiya Lal from Jaipur is shown and he had a small and happy family with wife, 4 year old boy and 6-month daughter. He met with an accident on 14th April 2013 when he was going to visit his in-laws and his motorcycle was hit by a truck from behind. His wife and daughter were badly injured and lying on the road and he asked people for help but no one came to help him and soon his wife and daughter succumbed to their injuries and died. Aamir then speaks with Piyush Tiwari from SaveLIFE foundation and asks whether we see people not coming forward in such cases. Piyush speaks that it is very common occurence and recently a report from law commission that 50 % of the people who die on roads because they didn’t get first medical and timely help. Piyush speaks of his personal experience where his small cousin died on the road after getting hit by a jeep and there were 400 people by-standers and they even didn’t call the police/ambulance. Piyush learnt that people come forward in train crash, building crash, and other incidents but doesn’t come forward and hesitate to help the injured on roads thinking that police/authorities will question and they need to visit courts often. He then speaks that in foreign countries there is Good Samaritan Law is there and now in our law we don’t have provisions that the person who helps the injured/victim gets support and they have applied for it in Supreme court. In cities, police needs to come forward to help the injured and he speaks of training the policeman with basic first aid so that the injured gets timely help. He shares his experience where policeman helped 4 foreigners who were badly injured after iron rods were rammed in their car, and the police has towed their car without removing the rods from their body which is the basic medical procedure. All the four lives got saved.
Aamir asks the viewers if they find a truck from where iron rods are coming out then people can take photo and send it to Piyush ji’s Save Life foundation (savelifefoundation.org) and his organization will complain to concerned authorities. Piyush ji informs that according to planning commission, 3 % of the GDP is lost because of road accidents. Aamir asks the viewers if we need a new law on road safety to protect all categories of road users including pedestrians then the people can give a missed call at the toll-free no 1800 833 4002 and be part of Mumkin Hai campaign. Aamir speaks that people can support Save Life foundation via Axis Bank, Airtel money, and Reliance foundation is giving 1 Crore INR. Aamir shows an AV where school children in Delhi have saved the life of a person who was going on a bicycle and he met with an accident and got hit by an Auto and his leg’s bone was broken and badly injured. Nobody helped them and they then took things in their hand and took the man in the same auto which hit him since the auto driver ran away. They pushed the auto and took the injured man to hospital and saved his life. Aamir felicitates those young boys on the show.
Aamir speaks of 7 to 8 things which are basic and can save lives from road accidents and we don’t need intervention from the govt and we can do it on our own:
- Do Not overspeed driving
- Follow Traffic rules for our own safety
- Wear good quality helmet and drive the bike and also pillon riders and women should wear the helmet
- Do not drink and drive. Do not drive while being intoxicated with other things
- Drive while wearing seat belt and wear it because of your own life safety and even the back seat passengers should wear it
- Do not use mobile while driving
- Every children in School Bus should have seat and wear belt
- Always help the injured person on the road and do not worry about police and courts.
Aamir speaks of having the hope that we all will make the road’s safe and signs off with his believe that it is Mumkin Hai.. Jai Hind.. Satyamev Jayate. Yeh Dua Hai Meri Kabhi Na Khafa Zindagi.. Shaam Ko song plays at the end of the show.
A new law on road safety to protect all road users, #MumkinHai. Pledge support by giving a missed call to 1800-833-4002 #RoadsOKPlease
— StarPlus (@StarPlus) October 12, 2014
Additional Note:
* Satyamev Jayate Website to keep updated about the show and other promos and finer details
http://www.satyamevjayate.in/
* Twitter page of Satyamev Jayate
Image credit: Twitter page of Satyamev Jayate and Star Plus
Episode Video: Satyamev Jayate Season 3, Episode 2, on Road Safety, 12th October 2014
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Episode Video – Subtitled in English
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Mumkin Hai: Aamir Khan answering Questions from Jaipur
[youtube id=http://youtu.be/7gITdZ9diAY]
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