i don't know whether...

...to feel sorry for the girl or the boy. (rather "more" sorry.)

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Car-reverse death rips Calcutta’s blinkers

OUR BUREAU


The garage (black gates) and the narrow lane where the accident took place. Picture by Jahid Mohammad

Calcutta, Oct. 5: An eight-year-old boy on his way back from school was crushed to death in Lake Town around noon today when a university student reversed a car in a narrow lane while trying to park it in her home garage.

The tragedy, waiting to happen in a city with roads and habits that have not kept pace with the ballooning motoring population, blows the lid off some ugly home truths Calcutta has been brushing under the carpet.

The driving lessons in the city are wholly inadequate and little attention is paid to instilling road discipline or safety measures.

The driving tests are worse. Licences are mostly rubber-stamped after perfunctory road tests in which many consider themselves lucky if they get to drive even 500 metres.

The reverse gear is hardly ever touched during a test. Many are left to learn the skills of parking and backing-up in the lanes running along their houses.

Only a police investigation will establish what caused the accident around 11.30am in front of the boy’s father, who was leading the child by hand but eased the grip probably because of the safety guaranteed by the residential lane.

The boy has been identified as Shubham, son of Anand Sharma, an electrician, and Jyoti Sharma, who live in a slum than 200 metres away.

The 22-year-old university student has been arrested and charged under a law that can send her to jail for 10 years if found guilty.

Shreya Sarbadhikary, a postgraduate student of mass communication and journalism at Calcutta University, had taken the key from her driver after a shopping trip and was trying to park the small car – Chevrolet Spark.

Shreya, the daughter of a chartered accountant, has been holding a driving licence for the past two years. But the police quoted her as saying she rarely sat at the wheel.

Preliminary reports suggested that Shreya was moving the car forward and backward multiple times – a manoeuvre seen frequently in Calcutta and prone to risk because drivers tend to take their eyes off the rear-view mirror after a few attempts and focus on squeezing the car into the available space without scrapes or dents.

The boy was hit twice when he tried to squeeze through between the car and a wall while Shreya was trying to take the car into the garage. After the boy was struck first, the car advanced towards the garage but moved back and crushed him.

“The girl was trying to park the car inside the garage in her three-storey house. Since the road is barely 9 feet wide, she had to move the car forward and backward several times to create space when the boy tried to pass by. It appears she did not notice the boy,” said an officer of Lake Town police station.

One of Shreya’s neighbours described how difficult it was to negotiate the lane. “I had faced the same problem while parking my car or taking it out from the garage. It is such a narrow road. I now park my car in a different place where I have taken a garage on rent,” said Manab Ghosh, who lives next to the Sarbadhikarys, close to Daffodil nursing home.

The death of the boy ignited a furore among residents of the near-by slum, who damaged the car. The police took the girl and her mother to the station. Trinamul MLA Sujit Bose reached the site and went to the police station.

“Shreya was booked under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 279 (driving rashly and negligently as to endanger human life) and Section 184 of the Motor Vehicles Act (rash driving),” said an officer. Shreya will be produced in court on Sunday.

An officer said the accident underscored the inadequacies of driving schools as well as testing centres. “Most people learn the finer aspects of driving, like applying the reverse gear, while practising with their own cars. Many schools merely teach how to use the accelerator and brake,” he said.

A 23-year-old youth who recently underwent the test at Beltala said: “They never asked me to apply the reverse gear or drive in a narrow road. The officials from the driving school were so influential that the test was just a formality.”

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1131006/jsp/frontpage/story_17430458.jsp#.UlD7i4Y--6M

sources tell me she will not be sentenced to imprisonment if it is proved to be an accident without the influence of alcohol.

Typical armchair journalist loftily editorializing about the quality of driving lessons in India, when this could have happened to the most expert of drivers.

Reverse parking anywhere in India is a nightmare because other road users continue to move on as if the backing up vehicle doesnt exist. Pedestrians - even adults, who should know better - have this stupid habit of darting through tiny spaces when a vehicle is backing up just to avoid waiting for those 10-15 seconds.

One of the features I'm happiest about in my new car is the rear view camera. I recommend that to all car owners - costs very little, but is an invaluable aid in this third world dump.

Merlot Daruwala wrote:Typical armchair journalist loftily editorializing about the quality of driving lessons in India, when this could have happened to the most expert of drivers.

Reverse parking anywhere in India is a nightmare because other road users continue to move on as if the backing up vehicle doesnt exist. Pedestrians - even adults, who should know better - have this stupid habit of darting through tiny spaces when a vehicle is backing up just to avoid waiting for those 10-15 seconds.

One of the features I'm happiest about in my new car is the rear view camera. I recommend that to all car owners - costs very little, but is an invaluable aid in this third world dump.

+1

rear view camera? wow. never heard of those -- i'll see if i can get one for my altis. it took me a while to change habits from swerving my head back (for view) while reversing to following the rear and wing mirrors instead. after i got adjusted to the habit, i felt guilty of not having adopted it earlier but i guess it was impossible anyway in rickety ambassadors.  

here is today's news on the freak accident:

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1131007/jsp/calcutta/story_17431440.jsp#.UlJQ0lA--6M


The car that crushed to death an eight-year-old schoolboy. (Jahid Mohammad)

The university student whose car crushed to death an eight-year-old schoolboy while she was reversing the vehicle might have made a mistake that police say is common to new drivers — pressing the accelerator in trying to slam the brakes.

Shreya Sarbadhikary, 22, has had a driving licence for two years but told the police that she pressed the accelerator by mistake. “The accused says she saw the boy and intended to brake but her foot found the accelerator,” an officer said.

Eight-year-old Shubham Sharma, a resident of a slum close to Shreya’s Lake Town home, was returning home with his father around noon on Saturday when the Chevrolet Spark crushed him against a wall. Shreya had been trying to park the car in her home garage when the tragedy occurred.

The arrested mass communication student was produced in a Bidhannagar court on Sunday and remanded in judicial custody till October 9. She has been booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, carrying a maximum jail term of 10 years.

Public prosecutor Shabir Ali opposed Shreya’s bail plea on the ground that she was not proficient in driving and hence could have allowed the family driver to park the car, which requires reversing in the narrow lane.

Shreya’s father Kunal Sarbadhikary said the engine stalled just when his daughter was trying to park the car inside the garage and the wheels rolled backwards, crushing the schoolboy against the wall.

“I haven’t been able to speak to my daughter. But my wife told me that the engine stalled and the slope at the garage’s entrance made the car reverse on its own. It was a freak accident,” said Kunal, a chartered accountant. “My daughter is devastated. Who could have imagined such a thing would happen?”

The police have sent the Spark for a mechanical test.

The Telegraph had highlighted on Sunday how training at driving schools and the licence test conducted by the public vehicles department are a sham.“Even after driving for nearly a year, I mistakenly press the accelerator instead of the brakes at times. During my training, I was never taught how to reverse,” said a 21-year-old who recently got his licence.

Many candidates who take the test are surprised to hear they need to drive barely 250 metres, often along a straight line. Driving home the inadequacy of the PVD procedure is the experience of a Calcuttan who has twice failed a licence test in Muscat, Oman, despite driving in India for five years. “In that part of the world, people throw parties when they get a licence,” the NRI, visiting home for Puja, said.

Lt. Col. HK (Retd) wrote:

Merlot Daruwala wrote:Typical armchair journalist loftily editorializing about the quality of driving lessons in India, when this could have happened to the most expert of drivers.

Reverse parking anywhere in India is a nightmare because other road users continue to move on as if the backing up vehicle doesnt exist. Pedestrians - even adults, who should know better - have this stupid habit of darting through tiny spaces when a vehicle is backing up just to avoid waiting for those 10-15 seconds.

One of the features I'm happiest about in my new car is the rear view camera. I recommend that to all car owners - costs very little, but is an invaluable aid in this third world dump.

+1

rear view camera? wow. never heard of those -- i'll see if i can get one for my altis. it took me a while to change habits from swerving my head back (for view) while reversing to following the rear and wing mirrors instead. after i got adjusted to the habit, i felt guilty of not having adopted it earlier but i guess it was impossible anyway in rickety ambassadors.

Oddly, Toyota's official accessory store only offers reversing sensors and not a proper camera (standard fixture in the Verna). But you can easily get a third-party camera fitted, costing <10k. See: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modifications-accessories/120061-installed-reverse-parking-system-our-toyota-etios.html

thanks! i am getting this installed in my altis and ford fiesta. it's a nifty feature.

Merlot Daruwala wrote:Typical armchair journalist loftily editorializing about the quality of driving lessons in India, when this could have happened to the most expert of drivers.

Reverse parking anywhere in India is a nightmare because other road users continue to move on as if the backing up vehicle doesnt exist. Pedestrians - even adults, who should know better - have this stupid habit of darting through tiny spaces when a vehicle is backing up just to avoid waiting for those 10-15 seconds.

One of the features I'm happiest about in my new car is the rear view camera. I recommend that to all car owners - costs very little, but is an invaluable aid in this third world dump.

...the only downside is that i am so used to it that when i recently rented a car without one, i was lost and struggled a lot when trying to park at a rather tricky spot in downtown seattle.