Traffic and tales!

This is about us. About people being alive one moment and being dead the next moment. Irrespective of what or who one is; the threat of becoming the next victim of an accident is looming large. It is no longer a situation of whether you and I will ever get involved in an accident; it is only a question of when and perhaps how. It could just be that we are the cause for an accident or a victim to someone else’s negligence and recklessness.

Today the odds are very much against anybody, reaching their destination safe; be it getting to work or getting back home. Often in our travels we get to realize that we just had a providential escape or eluded a serious mishap by whisker.

And this very moment many hapless victims across the world have just run out of this luck. And the galloping statistics of accident victims continue to mount worldwide every day. Incalculable damage and misery is brought to bear on the society as a whole. Television Channels and Newspapers the World over regularly report stories of ghastly and gruesome accidents every day.

According to WHO, on a global count about 1.2 million people die every year in road accidents and that is a staggering figure of roughly 3300 people each day. It means two persons die each minute. And by the time this page is read, road accidents will have caused the death of another couple of persons in some part of the world.

In earlier times elders would advise travellers to look out for dangerous creatures and wild animals as they could possibly attack and kill; especially in uninhabited areas. But today the buses and bikes, trucks and trailers, cars and vans are more involved in killing more people. And this happens on our roads every day or night, round the clock and all through the year. Some are known to us while most others are beyond our notice.

Road accidents cause immense trauma and untold miseries to the near and dear of the victims. In every case the loss of human life is felt very much and a great void haunts the families for a long, long time as a caring mother or sister is dead and gone, a loving father or brother is no more, a dear husband or wife is lost forever, a pretty child is plucked away, a promising son or daughter has perished; an aunt or an uncle has disappeared forever and a dear friend is gone for all time.

It does not matter whether people perish in a plane crash, or a car crash or a train crash or just went sinking as ships collided. It’s just that they are not there anymore. They have become a thing of the past! And part of a history!

This is a reality and no joke. Certainly for the members of the bereaved families or the severely injured it is a tale they can never recover from nor forget. Yet they were all bright and beautiful people. They were caring parents, loving children, dear friends. They were lovers, care takers, bread winners, home keepers, leaders and so forth. Overnight their lives are simply non-existent. Only their tales remain.

The print and visual media carry daily reports on the accidents. They invariably narrate the incidents leading to the accidents and the fate of the unfortunate victims. The bigger the tragedies they often get covered on the cover pages. Obviously these news and cover stories possibly generate a lot of interest among the readers and the public.

What can possibly be the reason for people to read about such news constantly? What is it that, that enthuses people to read about accidents? What is beneath their interest? Is it sheer curiosity? Is it to feel sorry for the victims? Is it simply to read and analyze how it could have happened? Is it to check out whether someone known was involved? Or is it empathy for the unfortunate fellow humans involved in the tragedy? Or is simply a matter of habit?

Or is it merely to reconfirm the helpless thought lying somewhere in our mind that we have no choice but to accept the risks associated with current day hazards of travel. Well, lives could well become tales overnight!

Whatever it is that generates such immense interest in people may not be known for sure. But what we know is that people are never tired of reading about it be it road accidents or others.

Traffictales.net now embarks on a voyage towards addressing the threats posed to human lives by ever increasing road accidents; to recapture the astonishing tales emanating from the accidents and victims; to explore the causes behind such gruesome incidents and be part of the global initiatives to minimize the menace from motor vehicles! We believe our efforts will make a difference!

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