4 school kids died in this unfortuante accident. Everyone is blaming truck driver, However I want to highlight something very different.
That is defensive driving, Just learning how to drive isnt enough in India, Teach your children defensive driving.
Defensive driving is the ability to anticipate the stupidity that can happen on the road and protect yourself from it.
What do you do when:
- The car ahead brakes without warning?
- A truck is parked in the fast lane?
- A vehicle suddenly changes lanes without indicating?
- Someone is driving towards you from the wrong side of the road?
- A bike appears from a blind spot?
- A pedestrian crosses the road while looking at their phone?
- An auto-rickshaw stops suddenly to pick up a passenger?
- A vehicle behind you is driving too fast and too close?
- A driver is angry, impatient or clearly distracted?
- You are approaching an intersection where you cannot see what is coming from the other side?
Defensive driving means keeping a safe distance, scanning beyond the vehicle directly in front of you, checking blind spots, anticipating mistakes, using indicators, understanding escape routes, slowing down at junctions and never assuming that another driver has seen you.
It also means knowing when not to overtake, not getting into a road rage contest, giving way when the other person is clearly reckless, and remembering that being right is not more important than reaching home safely.
Driving in India is like navigating through an animal kingdom. Survival depends not only on knowing how to move through the jungle, but also on knowing how to defend yourself when the jungle behaves unpredictably.
I hope road safety in India changes over time. I am putting a significant amount of my time into making that happen.
But what do we do until then. I will write more about defensive driving soon. I have done a course on it and one day and it has saved my life. I wish to do same for kids.