We're safe, just a little shaken
We had Rahul drive us into TVM today to do a
little shopping. We were turning right (remember, one legacy of the British is
that Indians drive on the left side of the road), across traffic, and Rahul did
the typical Indian maneuver of rolling out into the oncoming traffic (usually
forcing the oncoming traffic to stop) while waiting for the traffic we were
turning into to clear enough for us to merge. A rickshaw driver apparently did
not see us sitting almost horizontal in his lane and rammed right into Rahul's
door.
Claire had been standing in the back, but leaning
forward between the two front seats. Luc was standing on the floor between
Marion's legs. They were behind Rahul. Rickshaws aren't all that big, not that
heavy, but the impact was pretty serious. Claire got knocked part way into the
front seats. Luckily she wasn't really phased by it and wanted to get out of the
car with me to see what happened. She was interested in when we could leave the
scene to get the ice cream she was
promised.
But Marion and I, and Rahul I
suppose as well, were quite shaken. It was a close call, after all. Had it been
a car, or worse, a bus, and had it hit two feet back, Marion and Luc would have
been crushed. The whole event, which included the formation of a crowd and a
fair amount of arm waving and pointing, was a reality check for me. We are in
India, and we are driving around on roads with very little traffic control, with
our kids unbuckled. It's not just the safety aspect, but the stress of having to
deal with such an event in a foreign
country.
I'm sure Marion and I will
take stock and figure out how to be safer. It may provoke us to move out of here
and into a city (maybe TVM, but more likely elsewhere) where we aren't driving
around everyday. But I'm not sure which is a riskier activity: driving in a car,
or walking in very pedestrian unfriendly cities and taking unsafe rickshaws.
We'll have to weigh the options.
Posted: Mon - December
26, 2005 at 08:35 AM