The death of a 27-year-old woman, Sutandra Chatterjee, in a car accident on National Highway 19 on February 23 has thrown the spotlight on the darkness in Bengal’s highways at night. While there are conflicting versions of what exactly happened, it is undeniable that two cars raced through a highway at night, leading to a tragedy.
As luck would have it, on the same day I embarked on a road trip to the hills on National Highway 12.
The NH 12, earlier known as NH 34, runs from Dalkhola in North Dinajpur district to Bakkhali in South 24 Parganas, connecting cities like Raiganj, Malda, Krishnanagar and Kolkata.
Travelling at night, like all highway rides, we were prepared for unruly heavy duty vehicles, traffic snarls and poor traffic management at busy intersections. Or so we thought.
The four of us travelling that night had at least five narrow escapes from head-on-collisons with vehicles taking the wrong route and coming from the opposite side.
That also included being almost toppled by a speeding truck.
The most harrowing of all was a speeding truck changing lanes without any indicator or indication and overtaking us, its engine-roar filling the night as it raged past.
A little tilt of either steerings and our car would be upside down in the field on the other side of the highway, much like Sutandra’s car.
On our way back home, on March 1, a similar incident happened with a passenger-carrying electric autos that are called totos.
What saved us was my friend’s presence of mind, command over driving, and most importantly, braking right on time, saving us from a major collision which could have killed us as well as the passengers in the toto. The driver hurled abuses at us and sped off. Highway patrol? What’s that?
Unruly, speeding drivers were not all that we faced. There was one pitch-dark stretch with reflectors that did anything but reflect light. Inconsistently placed, the reflectors need immediate retouching. The metallic ones that should be positioned at a surface level are mostly missing. The highway, under the Union ministry of road transport and highways, passes through districts like North 24 Parganas, Nadia, Murshidabad and Malda.
Driving on NH 12 after dusk, you better follow Jim Morron’s advice: Keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel. All the time. Pro tip, a keen eye on both sides of the road is another must. Go figure how, because this is video-game territory with danger coming at you from all sides.
You must also expect vehicles coming from the opposite direction. A steady inflow of bikes and cars speeding from the wrong side with high beams kept on blinding us at various junctures of the road trip. With no indicators on, you have to be sharper than the sharpest slip fielder to determine which way they were heading.
Oh, and did I forget the bumpy ride, courtesy the potholes of various shapes and sizes, on the highway? Since the only source of light on most of the 612km stretch in most places is the headlights of moving vehicles, spotting a pothole ahead of time is near impossible.
The series of near-miss-accidents continued, courtesy the guardrails and drums that were placed in a zigzag manner. Meant to prevent overspeeding, the positioning of the guardrails and drums only enhance the chances of accidents.
The drums also have red or yellow patches stuck on them to serve as reflectors, which because of dirt and their size, serve no purpose. Most barricade junctures do not have traffic personnel manning the points.
Every time we crossed a guardrail, almost inevitably behind a truck, it was a cautious move to keep away from getting brushed by them, or worse, becoming collateral damage for a bigger vehicle's troubles with the rails and drums.
See the silver droplets in the photograph above? Those are not hailstones. The NH 12 has loose stone chips flying from both sides of the road. Some even falling from trucks carrying them, making a breadcrumb trail. The loose chips made driving difficult, making the tyres more prone to skidding.
Keeping a safe distance from any truck carrying and dropping such chips was on the checklist to ensure safety too, for they could also damage the front glass.
Union road transport minister Nitin Gadkari recently admitted in Parliament: “Forget about reducing the number of accidents, I have no hesitation to admit that it has been increased.”
Though Bengal is not among the top four states in terms of road accident deaths per the minister — Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh take the honours on that front, in that order — the journey on the National Highway 12 made me realise why road accidents are on a rise.
People hanging from trucks and lorries go unchecked. Bikers travel without helmets, and triple carry. Bumpers are not painted and it is difficult to spot them.
By the time we returned home, the memories from the holiday in the hills had faded away. We were just relieved at making it back alive and unhurt.