 Eight bus passengers lost their lives in a bizarre road accident in the wee hours of Wednesday last week, near the temple city of Madurai in Tamil Nadu. The bus ran into an unseen steel-rod-laden lorry, which had been left broken down on the left side of the road, without even a red taillight. The protruding rods smashed through the bus windscreen, killed eight and left 30 passengers injured, 10 of them in serious condition.
In March 1998 in Delhi, five persons were killed and 20, including eight women and two children, injured when a bus rammed into a stationary truck carrying iron-beams. In another incident, a 24-year-old woman was killed and her young companion injured when their car collided with a stationary truck parked on a New Delhi flyover without any indicator or parking lights. Both accidents occurred in the late hours.
Such accidents are not rare. Also, it is quite common to find trucks and bullock carts carrying loads that project far beyond the physical limits of the vehicles. Any consignment which projects out of the body of the carrier vehicle beyond permitted limits can be termed over-dimensional. Materials usually falling in this category are metal plates, sheets, bars, billets, structural steels or pipes, large castings, fabricated units, wire coils, scrap metals, reinforced rods, timber, stone, bulk straw and concrete pipes. Cargo becomes over-dimensional for two reasons: when it cannot be transported in parts or when large enough carriers are not available. However, today, vehicles with suitably elongated chassis are available for most cargo.
 The rules permit any pole or rod or indivisible load to project a distance of up to one metre beyond the rear of a vehicle. But even such a protrusion can be dangerous in the dark if it is not lit. Any broken down vehicle, particularly a heavy vehicle, must keep its taillights on at night. Heavy vehicles everywhere in the world carry lights all around -- front, back, sides, both at road level and roof level coupled with light reflectors. High visibility, especially in the event of a breakdown, is the aim. Indian laws prescribe that every vehicle and trailer longer than six metres be fitted with two amber reflectors on each side of the vehicle.
Dr. Amit Banerjee, Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Govind Ballabh Pant Hospital in Delhi, conducted a study a couple of years back on `Risk to Human Life on account of Traffic Laws Violation. The study showed that out of a total of nearly 400 lorries plying after 10 p.m. in Pragati Maidan area of New Delhi, only 38 (9.5 per cent) had either taillights or functioning reflectors. Even many cranes deployed by the Delhi Traffic Police and several buses of the Delhi Police did not have these safety provisions.
Little thought is bestowed on the visibility aspect of non-motorised vehicles like bicycles, cycle rickshaws or cycle carts. They become sitting ducks at night. They are not covered by the Motor Vehicles Act, a Central law. As such, a central directive may not be practicable, but local authorities can surely intervene to enforce extensive use of acceptable reflector tapes (on back, front and sides) for such vehicles.
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