3 Aug 2018 : We had this session at the Hoodi facility of Tata Elxsi.  ~100 employees attended.

I try to keep updating my material with new inputs, new ideas. This time, I decided to mix narrative stories with data/non-narrative messages. Research  says that the story-based interventions most strongly affect people’s intentions to change their behavior, while non-narrative messages most strongly affect cognitive beliefs and attitudes.

I opened with the story of the Poladpur accident – A group of 32 started off on a picnic, with 2 drivers. Unfortunately, at a place near Poladpur, the bus went off a cliff and fell into a deep gorge! There was one person who miraculously escaped, but 33 people crashed to their unfortunate, untimely death.
“33 .. is that a big number? .. well, we lose over 400 every day in our country! That is like a plane crashing down every day!”

I also linked other information on the Poladpur accident at the relevant places.
One report  has it that the bus skid and slipped over loose stones and wet mud. In the section on speeding, I referred to this. Safe speed is decided by the context, not just the sign board. And for this, the driver has to be attentive. When driving on surfaces such as gravel, wet roads, loose stones, the traction between the tire and the surface is low. “Drive to the conditions”: slow down to keep the vehicle in control.

Another report  has it that the driver turned back for a moment to talk to the passengers.  Passengers can be a distraction! And in most cases, they do not realise it! Yet, the driver has to stay focused on the road. Prepare mentally and physically for the journey. His primary job is to get himself, his passengers, the vehicles safely to the destination without any harm to the other vehicles, people or property.

I also decided to change the term “Defensive Driving”. The term “Defensive” has several synonyms that are apt in our context : alert, watchful, cautious, on guard.  But “defensive” has a passive connotation. And, there is one other element that is important : anticipation. Therefore, I have now decided to call it Proactive Driving : be alert, and anticipate! Could the bus driver have anticipated the kind of distractions possible on the picnic, and better prepared to deal with them?

One person came up to me and asked about how much we are able to influence politicians. I hope that the collective effort of like-minded organizations will be successful – and we will get to see the Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill passed through the Rajya Sabha !

I sincerely thank Sunil Kumar and RS Murthy for giving me this opportunity.

Here are a few more pics from the session.

July 2

A wonderful session on Road Safety and Awareness at Dr K B Hedgewar School.

We were amazed at a recent video we came across – our Prime Minister interacted with some bright students from this school.
CLICK HERE for the video

Children of this school have made a device that will automatically dip the car light beam when it detects another vehicle approaching from the opposite side. We were curious to meet these children and see the possibility of working together on road Safety related issues. It was wonderful to interact with these talented students Sumedh Prabhudesai, Lekhraj Surlakar and Sanad Baligeri.

We also conducted a session on road safety. Around 250 students of classes 9 and 10 joined the session.

The question and answer session was extremely interesting . It is amazing to realize how well informed the students are about a lot of the latest developments.

The Arundhati Foundation would like to thank the students, teachers and management of Dr. Dr K B Hedgewar School, Cujira, Bamboli. Special thanks to Mr Subhash Desai and Principal Vilas Satarkar.
And a heartfelt thank you to Tarush Dhume for providing the much needed support during the session.

Here are a few photographs of the session.

July 5 : 2nd Session at LAM Research

This was in their brand new facility at the Fairway Business Park off the Inner Ring Road.  Over 150 employees attended this session.

I was pleasantly surprised when Vikas Chand mentioned that he had gone through the blog of the Foundation and was aware of our work.

This time, I incorporated two other videos into the talk

1. IIHS rear-seat unbelted passenger
2. Blind spots for buses – a video for 2-wheeler riders

These are very effective videos, and they help a lot in conveying the message.

I had some very interesting conversations after the session.

Ashish loves to go on long drives, but is especially conscious of the fatigue factor. His wife acts as the navigator. If either of them is tired, they stop. He also gave a very useful tip : Google maps marks accident-prone areas and cautions drivers to slow down. A yellow / light blue indicator on the map helps identify these areas.

One person raised a question on ethics : “if someone, or an animal, suddenly comes across the vehicle, should I save my life or of the other person / animal ?”  In that split second, I suppose it is instinct that takes over. Most likely, it will be a survival instinct. But its hard to call it a matter of ethics.

We talk of the Good Samaritan law – It allows people to help the victims of road accidents without any fear of harassment. Karnataka became the first state to introduce the Good Samartian bill in the state assembly. This evoked a positive response. Some people have lost their friends who did not get timely help.

There was a general observation that the process of procuring a driving license is very lax, and that it should be a lot more stringent. The MVA Amendment Bill 2017 has provisions for more transparent licensing, and more stringent penalty for violations, penalty for faulty road construction etc. Unfortunately, it is moving very slowly. It was passed in the Lok Sabha, but hasn’t yet made it to the Rajya Sabha. We hope that this session takes up the bill in earnest.

Another comment from a mother was on Underage driving. She is afraid that her teenage son will come under peer pressure and take the two wheeler on a ride. They keep the keys hidden from him.  In such situations, first of all, it has to be firm message to the child, letting him know that he will get his turn when he becomes an adult. It is important to also reach out to the parents of your child’s friends and caution them if the children are indulging in underage driving. It takes a degree of maturity to deal with problems on the road, and a child cannot be expected to have this maturity.

Ramya informed me the next day that several of the people have come forth and promised to wear helmets. That is very heartening!

Thanks LAM research for a wonderfully interactive session.  I hope to add some pictures from the session soon.

****

20 April 2018

It looks like the word about the work done by The Arundhati Foundation is spreading through various people. I had a pleasant surprise one day in April when Ramya Jyothi from Lam Research reached out to us and requested us to conduct not one but 4 sessions for the organization, in each of its facilities.

I agreed to do the first session on April 20, and based on the feedback, we will conduct the further 3 sessions as well.

One tries to inject some humour into the topic because people can be more receptive to take in the message. I saw this clip of Farokh Engineer – the dashing wicketkeeper/bastman who played for India in the era where protective gear was limited – and decided to use a bit of it. Engineer had joked once “Cricketers started using the abdomen guard in 1868. The helmet came into play only in the 1970s. It took a 100 years for cricketers to recognize that the head is precious!”

I got an interesting perspective from one of the audience members. When discussing speed, he said “30 km/hour translates to about 30 feet/sec” Pointing across the room he said – “this is about the distance to the door there. Imagine having to stop in between the two points – to go from 30 km/hr to 0 in less than 1 second. Now you can understand how hard it is to stop when at higher speeds”.

Thank you Ramya for organizing the event, and Lam Research for giving us the opportunity. I will certainly cover the other sites as well.

16 March 2018

I visited Ramyam at their new office in the Crescent-4 tower at Prestige Shantiniketan. A group of 70 employees attended the session.

Based on the experience from the past sessions, I made some changes. After covering the important topics related to Defensive Driving, I picked a few of the commonly asked questions, and incorporated them into the presentation.

The section is titled “What about …”, and discusses a few topics:
“listening to music when driving”
“giving way to a pedestrian”
“giving way to an ambulance”
“using high beam at night”
“when using a taxi / auto”
“when riding pillion”

I found the audience to be very interactive when these points were discussed.
Maybe I will change the first part of my presentation based on this as well.

Thanks to my old colleague and friend Manoj KC for inviting me over to Ramyam.
And, thanks to Luman Francis who helped organize the event.
Here are some pics from the event.

Feb 16, 2018

We conducted a session on road safety awareness at Hewlett Packard’s campus in Bengaluru.
About 100 people attended the session.

There were some very interesting discussions during the Q&A:

* “Most people do not follow the rules”
My answer to this is always that the process starts from self, from within.
And, if you find others violating the rules, do not get into a confrontation.
There are ways to convey the message without picking a fight.

* “Tyre bursts are cause for accidents as well”
yes. and therefore preventive maintenance is important.
Defensive driving, in fact, covers many areas starting from the prepartion, to night driving, bad weather conditions, pillion, etc.
We touched only a few topics to address the issues that are most prevalent in the city.

* “Why don’t you do this for Ola and Uber drivers?”
I will be happy to! I need to get the opening.
I would also like to do this with the delivery boys of Amazon, Flipkart, Swiggy,…
I have some friends who can probably convey the message more effectively in Kannada.
But, every time I get into a taxi, I make it a point to tell the driver what is acceptable and what is not.
Particularly wrt cellphones, safe speed, jumping signals.
I also see that many taxis do not have seatbelts in the rear seats. And I make it a point to give this feedback.

* “Is listening to music considered to be a distraction?”
Listening to music on low volume is OK as long as it does not interfere with sounds from the road.
Listening with earbuds is a no-no since it cuts off the sounds from the road.
Reaching out to change music should be done when in a parked position.

* “A car / motorcycle can easily go under the rear of a truck if one is not careful”.
Couldn’t agree more … it can be very dangerous if sufficient space is not maintained.

* “When you see a ball rolling down the street, you can expect a child to come running after it”
That is exactly what defensive driving is about. Be aware of your environment. Be alert to anticipate!

* “How can I join your organization”
Do look up our site www.thearundhatifoundation.org.in
And get in touch with us with your ideas.
We can certainly take your help to further the message.

My sincere thanks to Kedar Vaze and HP for organizing the event.

Here are copies of the signed pledge.

3 Feb 2018

Today, we took the students of NPS, Indiranagar, for a field visit to the Traffic Management Centre, Bengaluru.
These are students of QuizShala – a program conducted by Walnut Knowledge Solutions.
Today’s program was a joint collaboration with Anusha Jaishankar’s Positive Strokes.

Shubhangi and Anusha had a interactive discussion with the students on road safety – they discussed the statistics, the challenges, and the need to acknowledge good behaviour on the road.  By giving them a positive stroke, we reinforce the good behaviour.

A few students shared their experiences – drivers overcome by fatigue, drunk driving, rash driving.  Then they turned on the systems to monitor the junctions. It was a “WOW” moment for the kids! They had not imagined such technology being used by the Bengaluru Traffic Police.

They went about looking for good behaviour : riders wearing helmets, good lane discipline, wearing seatbelts, stopping before zebra crossing, using signals when turning. While doing so, the bad behaviour on the road was very visible to them:
“Dude! look at that – he did not stop at the red light!”,
“That auto came all the way around the one behind and is now horizontal on the zebra crossing. He is blocking the others now!”
“These boys are not wearing helmets, and that one is wearing it on his hand”

They had suggestions for improving roadsafety : curbing overspeeding, educating people on use of helmets and safety belts. Some said that the simplest rule that could be followed was “Stop on Red”
All were in favour of imposing strict fines for the bad behaviour on the road.

At the end of the session, Sub-Inspector A.Khan and his team gave away certificates of participation to the students.

Thank you Bengaluru City Traffic Police, Positive Strokes and Walnut Knowledge Solutions – this collaboration makes a big difference.

Here are some pics from the event

Attached are a few more pics from the event on 18 Nov.