PLAY IT SAFE

As part of Hyundai’s #BeTheBetterGuy campaign, we’ve got you our top tips for being safer drivers, and making the roads a safer place

- KARAN SINGH

THERE WERE APPROXIMATELY 4,67,000 ROAD accidents in India in 2018. That’s 1279 accidents per day. 53 every hour. Nearly one every minute of every single day. Just let that sink in for a bit. Accidents cost our country close to ₹1 lakh crore back in 2012, god alone knows what the figure is now, but monetary loss is one thing. Accidents also affect lives. Life-altering injuries, loss of near and dear ones – I know I sound extremely morbid but it is a sad reality. So what training do you get to navigate through this chaos? An arbitrary written test, and a 10-minute closed drive, provided the examiner actually arrived to take your test. Even a waiter at a restaurant gets more training for their job!

But what’s causing these accidents? It surely can’t just be because of speeding. Heck, most of our roads are as cratered as the surface of the moon, so how fast can you really go? The answer is jugaad. It’s a mentality evident everywhere in our country. It’s the reason no one follows a simple queue in traffic or the fact that driving on the wrong side is acceptable. And it is often the one doing (almost) everything right that comes out worse. So, is all hope lost? Not one bit. It is now more than ever that we have hope. OEMs like Hyundai are pushing not just for safer cars but safer road environments as well. This is also where we come in, with our years of experience driving cars and riding bikes across the country, we want to share the experience we’ve gained with you folks. Not just to make you safer drivers, but to make the roads safer for each user. Prepare to unlearn and learn.

Before you set off