The road is a challenge for many of us. And there are those among us who simply display a cavalier attitude to the rules of the road. On the streets of this city, it is not uncommon to come across bus drivers racing to get past one another, in the process injuring or even killing pedestrians. Again, there are the blissfully carefree pedestrians who think nothing of squeezing their way through two closely positioned buses in order to go to the other side of the road. We come across nearly every day and yet we cannot but worry. We worry because of some tragic happenings in recent days. People have lost their lives in the mad rush which public transport drivers engage in. A few days ago, an official of a newspaper organisation was run over by a vehicle in the city. All across the country, accidents have been going up in number, with bus drivers caring not at all about the endless dangers they are putting people, pedestrians and motorists alike, into.

There is the other side of the story. It is about undisciplined pedestrians. Some people simply wriggle their way to the other side through the dangerously narrow gap between two buses. Those individuals can be crushed to grievous injuries and even death. We say this because such tragic accidents have already occurred in the city and yet not many people are willing to learn any lessons. So what we have before us is a situation where bus drivers are reckless in their behaviour and at the same time a very large number of people are around to use the roads in their own careless fashion, with little or no thought to the risks they are putting their lives into. The worst is that even if there are traffic wardens and constables on duty, they usually do not step in to warn both drivers and pedestrians to avoid breaching the rules.

It is time for the traffic authorities to take stern measures on the roads. Experience tells us that unless tough measures are taken, nothing works. Along with pedestrians, drivers make a mess of the roads through their callous attitude to the rules of the road. We feel that the traffic department should work out a system which will apply to the roads every day of the year.

By Editor-in-Chief -Enayetullah Khan