So what were the sentinels, who earn big bucks by standing at street corners and going trigger-happy with their mobiles, doing? While sentinels pick low-hanging fruit (the guys who do not wear helmets), what about reckless drivers who end up traumatizing a family? By the way when Utpal Parrikar debuts in politics, it’s “LEGACY” when Rahul Gandhi joins politics it is “DYNASTY”. Talk of semantics!

April 9, 2019

Lionel Messias

It’s all very well for traffic police to pat themselves on the back that for the first time in 15 years, they recorded a significant drop in fatal accidents and a sharp increase of 48 per cent in the prosecution of traffic offenders.  Last week (April 2), according to a report released by the traffic police department, despite the year-on-year growth rate of 13.9 per cent in the number of vehicles on Goa’s roads, there was a 5.31 per cent decrease in accidents last year.

 But statistics lie, when you read obituary columns where a young person has lost his/her life “under tragic circumstances”, which usually means a traffic accident.  For that family, the only statistic that touches them is that a family member has succumbed to a senseless tragedy.

April 1, Savoi Verem: The driver of a Horticulture truck forgot to put his hand brakes on when he parked on a slope.  His mistake led to the vehicle reversing 50 metres crushing a retired teacher, Chandrakant Naik, between the vehicle and a pole.

April 1, Galgibaga: A multi-axle truck with a Karnataka registration would have ended up in the Galgibaga river because the highly intoxicated driver went down the ferry road instead of taking a turn to Mashem Voltar.  Two local lads who were angling in the river raised an alarm and stopped the truck from driving into a watery grave! It looks like the driver stopped at a bar, downed several and got in behind the wheels.  The sentinels apparently were blissfully unaware.

April 4, Karmal Ghat: A two-wheeler was hit by an oncoming container truck while ascending the ghat from the Canacona side. He fractured his leg.

April 4, Polem:  67-year-old former PWD employee died after his motorcycle was hit when he was going from Polem to his home in Bhatpal and was hit by a goods carrier with a Karnataka registration.  The driver strayed into the wrong lane and was driving recklessly and killed a senior citizen.

 April 4, Canacona: A youth from Shelim was killed by another two-wheeler while sitting on his parked two-wheeler on the shoulder of the road. This is something I can vouch for because youth tend to park on the side and gather together for a gossip session.  If they hear a car honk, an indication by the driver to let him pass, all they do is to judge whether the car has enough space and go back to their "gram sabha".  Why can’t they park completely on the side instead of the edge of the road so that cars can pass freely on a narrow village road.

April 6, Borda, Margao: Shankar Patil,22, died when his scooter was hit from behind by a car driven by Chirag Kamaraj.  Patil was crushed to death under the wheels of the car.

April 7, Chorla Ghat: A 60-year-old woman died while 5 others were injured when a car and a pick-up truck collided at Chorla Ghat.

April 10, Kadamba Plateau: Sahil Bhat, 23, from Merces died while going towards Panjim near the Sai Baba temple at Kadamba Plateau. It was 3.30 in the afternoon and the driver lost control and the speeding vehicle hit the crash barrier, jumped over it, landed in the middle and hit a mini-bus going towards Panjim. Car – mangled, Driver –dead, Sentinel – missing!

Six deaths that we know of in the first 10 days of April! In February this year, 19 persons died in accidents.  So what were the sentinels, who earn big bucks by standing at street corners and going trigger-happy with their mobiles, doing?  While sentinels pick low-hanging fruit (the guys who do not wear helmets), what about reckless drivers who end up traumatizing a family?

Public service not in their DNA

Also, while sentinels appear to be busy “catching” offenders, so they can get rich, how about they truly do some public service too?  For instance, there was traffic chaos recently at the Vasco railway overbridge near St Andrew’s Church after a Tempo Traveller got stuck because of the lowered height gauge bar.  So traffic piled up all around the vehicle and had a cascading effect till Mangor and the queue of vehicles kept growing.

 A Traffic police team “rushed” there but could do nothing.  I am sure a sentinel was lurking somewhere enjoying the chaos because he kept seeing dollar signs from this situation.

Finally it was a two-wheeler rider who thought out of the box.  He asked the Tempo Traveller driver to release air pressure in his tyres, so the height of his vehicle would decrease.  He did, and eureka, his vehicle got unstuck and moved out and so did all the other stuck vehicles!  So will the traffic police department reward this two-wheeler rider?  No he will remain anonymous because he is not among the 5,834 traffic sentinels who enrolled when the Traffic Sentinel scheme was launched via the Whatsapp platform on Nov 10, 2017.

 Legacy vs Dynasty

Manohar Parrikar, four-time Chief Minister of Goa, who died on March 17 was very clear that his sons, Utpal and Abhijeet, should not follow him into politics. But, even so, 39-year-old Utpal is likely to be Panaji’s BJP candidate when it goes for by-elections on May 19.

Of course, Utpal, is not admitting that he is ready to take the plunge, unlike another son, Joshua D’Souza, the son of former Deputy CM Francis D’Souza who died on February 14, who came upfront and demanded that he be given the ticket from Mapusa. Unlike Utpal, who was actively wooed by the BJP, in the case of Joshua, they went hem-haw, maybe, made him sweat and finally deigned to give him the ticket.  Mind you, he is a councilor from Mapusa, whereas Utpal’s experience in politics is nil(he is a businessman), except when he accompanied his father for campaigning in the 2017 assembly elections.

But despite Utpal’s seeming hesitation, he seems to have made up his mind. In a joint thanksgiving statement about two weeks ago, along with his brother, he said: “We will honour his life by continuing his legacy of service and dedication to the State and the nation.”

By the way when he debuts in politics, it’s “LEGACY” when Rahul Gandhi joins politics it is “DYNASTY”. Talk of semantics!