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Mumbai-Pune Expressway: A long chat with a Highway Patrol person I went to Pune today morning. Solo drive in the XUV5OO. For people who are unfamillar to this part of the country - The Mumbai-Pune expressway was built around 10 years back and is still one of the fastest highways in India.



I was at the Khalapur toll-naka around 8:15AM and a gentleman from the Mumbai-Pune Expressway highway patrol asked for a lift till the Talegaon toll-naka. I typically don't give lifts. Never when with family.



Today I was alone. The gentleman was wearing a Khaki uniform and had a IRB fluorescent orange jacket on top. Seemed like a genuine person. Plus he was waiting at the toll-naka which is operated by IRB itself, which sort of reinforced his credentials as an IRB employee. So I gave him a lift. He settled down in the passenger seat, I waited for a brief second and then asked him to wear the seat-belt which he did promptly. Started from the toll-naka and the gentleman started conversing in Hindi.



He asked me "Kaunsa gaadi". (Which car?)

Me: "XUV5OO. Mahindra ki hain." (XUV5OO. Its from Mahindras)

He felt the dashboard plastic with his hand, looked at the infortainment system, the dials and uttered "Achhchhi hain! Kya kya diya huwa hain". (Quite nice! Lot of things provided!)



Somehow I had a feeling that the guy is a Mahrashtrian, so I started speaking in Marathi. I was right. He started speaking in good Marathi.



I am not really a talkative person. So first minute or so, there was complete silence in the car. Even he did not speak. In hindsight, I guess he was observing how I was driving.



The following is a loose translation of our conversation over the next 30 odd minutes.

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Me: So, what do you do?

He: We are part of the highway patrol team and manage everything that happens on the Mumbai-Pune expressway. Everything.



Me: Accidents?

He: Yes, accidents as well. Once we get information, we try to reach the place as fast as possible. My role is that of a 'Helper'. So I typically move things by the side of the road.



We both knew what he meant by 'things'. There was a awkward silence. I thought about it. Should I take this line of conversation forward? Then I thought, let me try to understand how his life and work is. If either one becomes uncomfortable, we can always snap out of that topic and talk about generic pleasantries.



Me: Does it trouble you?

He: Not any more. But initially it was very hard. The first 6-7 months were tough. Everything that I used to see, used to bother me even when I used to go home after duty. Those sights keep on haunting for months. Especially at night, when I used go by a stretch - where I had attended to a accident just a few days back - that stretch used to send a chill down the spine. Not any more.



Me: How long have you been on this job?

He: For 7 years now. Now I am used to it. I go home and forget about it. Its not the best job to be in. But somebody needs to do it. Seeing mangled and torn bodies is part of the job. My job is to pick up whatever is remaining and place it by the side of the road till the ambulance arrives. After loading it in the ambulance, my responsibility ends. Many a times, its really bad - head or limbs severed, internals spilling out.



He was a gentleman, he did not get into details or examples. Neither did I wanted him to. There was no point getting images in your head that haunt you for ever. Instead he got into the reasons and we had a healthy conversation. And that's the main point of this thread/post.



He: This is possibly the fastest road nearby and the sight of a empty straights lures lot of guys to press on the pedal. What most people don't understand is that this road keeps on seeing lots of accidents practically daily. People think I anyway have to drive at 30-40 in the city. My car can do much much more than that and now here is a opportunity where there is very less traffic and they speed up to 100-120-150-180. Lot of these people have no experience of driving at and maintaining those speeds for long time. At that speed, you are racing with the wind. A slight unintentional movement of the steering and you are off the road and into the median/divider. You will be surprised by how many people mention afterwards that I just reached for my mobile or water bottle and don't know what happened next. At high speeds, just a split second of eyes off the road could spell disaster.



He: At high speeds, if the tyre bursts, there is practically nothing that one can do to control the vehicle. The vehicle invariably hits the divider or some other vehicle, topples, does a few somersaults before coming to a stop belly-up. The same tyre burst if it happens at a much lower speed like 70-80kmph, hold the steering STRAIGHT with force, take the foot off the accelerator, don't brake and you can still control the vehicle. Once we were rushing to a accident spot and were close to 100kmph and then suddenly dhadaaam - our tyre burst. The driver from the team somehow managed to maintain control and brought the vehicle to a stop. We were just lucky that day.



He: People in big cars, foreign cars, expensive cars, powerful cars. They believe that they can drive at whatever speed they want and nothing would happen to them or the car. Finally it is a machine and even it has got its limitations. You have to drive as per the surrounding condition. Big people, businessmen - they think that they don't have to follow the speed limit. I have seen many such die. Big businessmen and powerful people .. finally the body getting dragged in the dirt by the road side.



He: God can not save you. You might be a big devotee or even a god-man. I have seen Swamis and Gurus as well. Their God did not save them. Once you have decided to go beyond the limits, even God gives up.



He: People have to understand their own limits as well. A lot of accidents here happen because of drowsiness. The guy who is driving has not taken enough rest or just the monotony of the road induces a lapse in concentration. Drivers of tourist vehicles are the worst. For them every trip is money. So sleep and rest take a back seat. Its a responsibility of the people hiring those vehicles as well. If you have landed in Mumbai in the middle of the night and a cab driver from Pune has come to pick you up, you also need to understand what time has he started from Pune and now he is heading back to Pune.



He: Especially at night, people don't see stopped vehicles and slow moving vehicles at all if they are not alert. A whole bunch of cars end up going under the rear of a trailer or a truck. Trailers are dangerous, sometimes they don't have any lights. Avoid driving at night.



He: Since the road is fast, people take pride in statements like "I will be Pune in 30 minutes". What's the point? If you drive safe - at a speed of 80 or even lower, you will reach. It doesn't matter if it took 1 hour or 1 hour 15 minutes. And many a times, the difference in total time is so less. You drive at 110-120 and I will drive at 80-90. Finally at a slow stretch like Khandala, most likely I would catch up with you anyway or may be I will reach 10 minutes later than you. Do those 10 minutes really matter? In an attempt to reach 10 minutes early, sometimes people get delayed by hours and some even for ever.



He: There are stretches like the Sinhagad stretch which are known to have lot more accidents. People new to this highway don't know these stretches and end up in trouble.



He: Now I don't feel much. Most people die because of their mistakes. I don't feel anything about the 'driver' types who bring it upon themselves. When the fatalities include women and children, that's when I feel bad.



He: The others in the car also should control how the driver is driving. The person in the front passenger seat is very important. If that person is chatting up with the other passengers or sleeping, that's an invitation for disaster.



While passing through the Khandala section, I told him: Somebody I knew got into an accident here on 23rd Sep. Old Landrover. His name was Sam .. Sameer Kapasi.



He: Endeavour? Hah..one accident about a month back, 3 people including the driver died.



I guess he misheard 'Landrover' as 'Endeavour'.

Me: No, not Ford Endeavour! There was no 'driver'. He was driving himself. His wife is a German. Foreigner. His dad also in the car.



He: No, don't recall. I am sometimes posted towards the Pune end. We don't get the names most of the times anyways. And just too many things happen.



We crossed the Khandala tunnel and he asked me to give wide berth to the trucks and trailers.



He: They are big. They can not stick to their lane during all these turns.



He: Even which lane you take matters. Avoid the leftmost lane at night. Slow moving trucks and vehicles stopped incorrectly - huge danger of not seeing them till very late. During rains, stick to the middle lane. If one or two tyres go beyond the white line on fast lane, the mud and dirt is very risky.



Me: I don't drive on this highway at late night at all. Somehow the old instances of highway robberies are still in my mind.



He: We caught those guys. No problem. But you never know, new gangs may come up. But again, many a times, the people are stupid or greedy.

Stupid because they won't stop at the proper food-mall for taking a leak and then they stop at some stretch where there is a village nearby. They see lights and feel safe, but those might be the robbers themselves. Those guys sometimes drop a new gunny-bag filled with something on the road. They would sprinkle some rice around it and people fall for it. They think - must have fallen from some truck or tempo.

In one rare instance a girl was picked up. Anything could have happened. Luckily, they left her somewhere after taking the jewelery off.

Stop at proper food-malls for bio-breaks and don't stop if you find anything suspicious lying on the road.



We passed a IRB ambulance and he pointed it out proudly: "Our ambulance"



He: Just 2 days back, one of our ambulance staff died. After doing duty, was going back on his bike with his wife. Had drank a little also. Died. Wife still in hospital. I had met him that day and we had chatted for some time. It all ends in one second.



He pointed to a over-bridge in the distance and asked me to drop him off at the over-bridge after that. As I approached the bridge, he pointed to a IRB Bolero waiting for him there.



He: See how we have parked way off the road. That's how one should park if at all one needs to stop.



I stopped my car. He got off and thanked me for the lift.



Me: Your team is doing a fantastic job. I personally know 3 cases where you guys reached the spot really fast and helped. Thank you. You guys are good. The Lonavala police are bad though.



He: I know. Shameless fellows. Even if you are in deep shock or have lost someone, these buggers ask for money for the FIR.



I thanked him again and drove off.



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Guys, most of this is pure common sense and we KNOW most of this already.

We see one or two accidents on this highway and then forget about it. We slow down for 2 minutes and then step on it again. We see accidents photos in the Accidents thread and try to analyse what could have happened.



The gentleman I met today sees these mistakes being made everyday and the subsequent loss of life and entire families getting destroyed. Just wanted to share the broader perspective from his point of view.



So, please, please, PLEASE, buckle up and drive safe. Last edited by Vid6639 : 28th October 2012 at 09:10 . Reason: edited as requested