In the modern day of the Motor Age, speeding and rushing are the means of “going to and fro on this earth.” The automobile as a means of land transportation has become a necessity as well as a necessary evil. While the automobile has definitely increased our mobility and has given us independence, we must admit the fact that it also poses a major hazard to life and limb. Death now stalks the once comparatively safe ribbons of concrete which connect towns and cities, so much that motor vehicles have veritably become rolling coffins.
Numerous factors contribute to making one “accident prone,” such as, a mechanically defective car, faulty road and bad weather conditions, lack of driving skill, driving under the influence of liquor, unpredictable behavior of other motorists and pedestrians, etc. The factor that really tops the list is “speed.” Speed per se is not bad. It is over speeding that makes matters worse.
Isn’t it ironic how people can spend hours and hours watching TV or playing console and PC games, or even a whole night playing poker oblivious to the passage of time, as if they have an eternity to squander, but the moment they sit behind the wheel, they suddenly become overly time conscious? Every second now has strangely become extremely precious, and so they drive at breakneck supersonic speed.
They nose their way in and out of line, weaving hither and yon, ready to pounce on every possible opportunity to pass the car ahead, even if an on-coming car in the opposite lane in just a few meters away. A slight miscalculation here can spell disaster. They rush even on the streets teeming with people. Signs such as “Men Working,” “Road Under Construction,” “School Zone,” “Children Crossing,” do not affect their speed in the slightest degree. They step on the accelerator clear down to the floor in a mad race with other drivers to see who’ll get to the cemetery first. They zoom merrily along while their tensed passengers are frozen with fright. To say they are driving too fast is an understatement; actually, they are flying too low!
Road courtesy does not mean a thing to the aggressive or offensive drivers. Their suicidal driving style treats life too cheaply. They play Russian roulette on roads with their life and others’ lives at stake, not realizing that “speed that thrills is the speed that kills.”
We can follow a healthy lifestyle, even the whole regimen of good nutrition and proper exercise, but in an instant some fool on the road can blow us up to kingdom come. I hope it is not too much to ask to value our own lives as well as others’ by driving carefully.
