The gut - wrenching scene that you see in the picture is the scene that greeted me as I left my home for work on Tuesday morning. Tuesdays, as most people who know me, would know are the days when I drive out of town to attend to my outdoor clinic at Kollegal. It is a drive which, though I have dreaded for long, I now look forward to because the road I have to take is now almost in the final stages of the repair it had been begging for over the past 25 years.

Right in front of the cluster of Police offices, just a stone’s throw away from my house, was lying the mangled and lifeless body of a young man who too like me was on his way to work. This motorcycle rider had been run over from behind by a truck after he is said to have lost balance and fallen. Whether it was his fault or the truck driver’s can never be said with any degree of certainty even after the most meticulous investigation of the case because traffic accidents occur in the time - frame of a few milliseconds which can never be re - played to ascertain their exact cause.

But what can be said with certainty is that the promising life of a youngster who had just begun his career and had miles to go on the road of life has been snuffed out on one of our roads for ever. I stopped my car and got my assistant to quickly click a picture much to the annoyance of the few Policemen who had already arrived on the scene. But the scene which was frozen in my mind haunted me for the rest of the day as I could not help wondering who the young man was and what would be the anguish of his parents and other family members who would certainly have pinned all the hopes of their life on his own life that had now left him so suddenly.

Much later in the day after having read about the accident in Star of Mysore my wife called up to inform me that the boy who had died was a medical representative. I immediately called up a few medical reps whom I knew and who then happened to be present at the mortuary only to discover that the boy had visited me at my clinic a few days ago. He was now only a figure in the grim statistics of road accidents that are increasing by leaps and bounds in our city.

From the news reports that I read I have concluded that on an average, one life is being lost in and around our city every passing day. But we do not seem to be perturbed by this grim scenario and on the contrary we seem to have already come to terms with it and accepted it as an unavoidable part of our lives.

Is it really necessary to pay such a heavy price in this daily game of dice with death? Do we who are fortunate enough to have survived on our roads and who have not lost someone close so far, ponder over the agony and distress of the family members of those who are dying every day as if on a battlefield? Do the parents of youngsters who ride about like flying apparitions fueled only by adrenalin and the spirit of adventure ever spend any time in advising their children to behave responsibly?

Parents themselves are largely responsible for the increasing number of road accidents involving young boys and girls as most of them do not seriously consider other much safer but slightly more cumbersome modes of transport for their children’s needs. I feel the Traffic Police should take a more serious view of traffic offences and irresponsible behaviour on the road than just fining the offenders. With the growing affluence that is putting them astride two - wheelers or behind the steering wheels of cars most people today look upon fines only as a minor and very affordable nuisance.

Fines therefore do not seem to be having any deterrent effect on the detractors. Only prolonged impoundment of the vehicles along with mandatory counseling and sentences of correctional public service as is done in many other countries seems to be the answer to the problem.

There are many cities like Bangkok, Hong Kong and Singapore in our neighbourhood with more vehicles and a much greater density of traffic than what we have in any of our cities which are accident-free largely because of the implementation of their laws. If they can do it we can too if only we have the will. Either we mend our ways and make our roads much safer or let circumstances change our mindset and allow things to just drift along as we are doing now and watch this eerie dance of death. The choice is ours. Do think about it.