Candidates who pass the driving test in controlled conditions should receive a temporary license to become permanent after hundreds or thousands of hours of real-time driving experience. For example, an aspirant seeking a truck and tipper license must log a thousand hours of driving to and from the sand and stone quarry
Many years ago, my father took part in a cycle race in Guwahati. It was a race like no other. For the last man wins the race. To stand last in the race, you need patience, discipline, skill and control, just as much as in the racing sport.
It is what we need in the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal - slow disciplined riding and driving to stem the growing accidents that spell disaster for the affected families.
There is not much point in blaming the roads. People make the roads, not vice versa. The quality of the road depends on the quality of the people who make them. So, we should perhaps blame humans rather than inanimate roads for turning the road into a killer. Blame the drivers for driving recklessly on bad roads, the greedy transportation traders, government apparatus, the engineers and the contractors for laying killer roads across the country.
But a large portion of the blame goes to the drivers.
There are worse roads in the world, especially in South Asia. But we do not hear of frequent road accidents on arduous roads like even the Karakorum Highway as we do here.
Also, the hippies drove their vans and buses from England to Kathmandu in the 1970s on bad roads. I logged a lot of bus journeys between Birgunj and Kathmandu on the Tribhuvan Highway, regarded then as a death trap. Yet, here I am writing this now. Those days almost all bus drivers were disciplined Indians from Punjab.
Sadly, accidents are not the characteristics of rolling hills and mountains alone. Even the Japanese gifted freeway between Kathmandu and Bhaktapur and the grandiose East- West Highway are equally, if not more, prone to deadly accidents. The collision of two bikes in the plains on October 29, in which a Congress political worker perished and injured two young men, reminds us of the Roman Gladiators and the lance men from Ivanhoe. So the blame for all these goes to the drivers and the bikers, too.
Blame also goes to the licensing protocol. It is also true that many drivers and bikers drive without a license.
Then the licensing procedure might call for a complete overhaul. The license test in a controlled condition was all right when Kathmandu had a handful of vehicles. During those days, the roads to Dhulikhel would be empty of cars and buses by four in the evening. I would practise my driving skill from Nagdhunga to Bharatpur or Kathmandu to Nagarkot and Dhulikhel in the early 1980s and not in the 1880s.
The only way to cap accidents would be through stringent licensing rules, given that all 30 million Nepalis aspire to ride and drive. Candidates who pass the driving test in controlled conditions should receive a temporary license to become permanent after hundreds or thousands of hours of real-time driving experience. For example, an aspirant seeking a truck and tipper license must log a thousand hours of driving to and from the sand and stone quarry. It is just an idea. The experts could work on this in detail, including breaking it down into several categories, such as city or long-distance commute on all-weather, dirt or all-terrain roads.
Accordingly, the license issued in Kathmandu should not cover highways and long-distance travel without a substantial real-time hand down experience.
Despite starting my driving practice on the mountainous road, I don't drive on them. As for my bike, I only rode pillion two times out of the valley, once to Trishuli and the second time to Melamchi.
Then there is the question of overflowing passengers on public transportation.
It has been a culture in Nepal long before the dawn of the federal democratic republic. When I first travelled to Nagarkot from Bhaktapur on a German minibus discarded by the hippies, I got off halfway as the van started croaking under the weight of the passengers inside and on the roof. As a physics student for two years, I knew the centre of gravity of the bus would be disturbed with loads of people on top, making it easier for the vehicle to tumble over. Today, with the stream of bikes flowing on the road, I prefer to walk to Nagarkot.
Perhaps a road cess for bikes could and should be the same as light vehicles as they use more of the road as if they own it – left, rightand centre. Carrying tools and bulky implements, including large bamboo baskets, milk cans, gas canisters, are clear and present dangers on the roads. But bikers do it anyway.
Then there is the question of pay. I once took a Hiace bus (before the emergence of COCID-19) from Satdobato to Ratnapark via Lagankhel. The driver was a pretty belle. Seated next to the lass driver, I asked her if she drives the bus for a living.
She says her driver will take over at Lagankhel. At Lagankhel, she had some arguments with her driver and conductor, both of whom refused to drive. She was a fine driver, and she dropped us at Ratna Park from where she returned without passengers. She complained endlessly about the difficulty to get honest drivers.
But what about pay? A private driver advertising his availability on FB for immediate employment for city driving asked his potential employer for Rs30,000 a month. What is the salary scale of a public transportation driver in Kathmandu? Rs15,000 or 50,000? Most skilled drivers leave for greener pastures abroad after gaining some experience. We have too many politicians, teachers, doctors and engineers, and civil servants but not enough drivers. We must pay drivers well, at par with other professionals. We should perhaps tie up the driver salary with a minimum higher secondary certificate. It will also sync with our ambition to educate all.
All public transportation crew on long-distance commute should include a mechanic and stand-by driver. These measures might or might not alleviate accidents, in which case we should introduce punishments. Roads will not get better anytime soon, and if we do not take this into cognizance, death and injuries will hover over our heads. Blames will not defer or default on accidents involving death and disability.
A version of this article appears in the print on November 22, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
