Laws are not meant to be broken

Justice Devan Ramachandran’s observation that people’s lack of fear for transport laws is the cause of frequent accidents is significant. Especially when it is made in the background of the tragic Vadakkanchery bus accident. It is not the lack of laws but the refusal to follow them that causes catastrophes like this.

The duty of a citizen is to follow any law that is framed. Not only in modern societies but in ancient civilizations there were laws and orders. The punishment for violating laws during ancient times was, however, extremely brutal and unthinkable now. Therefore, violations of laws were scarce in those times. The situation now is different. There are many laws but people are reluctant to follow them.

If we dig deeper into the cause of the Vadakkanchery accident, which took nine lives including five children, we will realize that it lies in the violation of every rule by the tourist bus. Also, the school authorities must be blamed for hiring a bus that was on the blacklist of authorities for a trip to Ooty. The Motor Vehicle Department is equally responsible for allowing this to happen. The tourist bus was allowed to run even after it failed to pay the fines for many violations of the transport laws. Why did the authorities fail to take action against this erring tourist bus earlier?

The education department had banned schools from undertaking night travel, fifteen years back. Why didn’t the authorities take action against tourist buses when they repeatedly violated the court’s order not to use big lights and deafening sounds in buses? The rule to have speed governors is mandatory for heavy vehicles. How much checking have been done to see if these vehicles have speed governors?

Cameras are placed across the state to find out and punish those who are speeding. The authorities are only able to send notices to some violations of laws but fail to punish those who are guilty.

Those who refuse to obey the law must be taught to obey it by the government. There are around ten thousand violations of laws on the roads daily. These violations are increasing because the authorities take them lightly. If the violators are punished strictly then others will think twice before breaking the law. Developed countries impose strict punishments on those who violate transport laws. Those who violate transport laws in this country will follow every law in another country. That is because they know the consequences of breaking the transport law in a foreign country.

If the people here must have respect and obedience to the law, then the authorities must be willing to implement the laws sternly and without any bias.

Everyone discusses laws and their violations only when big tragedies occur. Once the people get out of the shock, everything returns back to normal. Once a law is passed in the legislative assembly after discussions then the responsibility to implement it lies with the executive officials. It is the failure of these officers to do their duty that leads to tears for many people.

When tragedies occur no amount of shocks or crocodile tears will help the families who lost their loved ones. What we want are ways that can prevent tragedies like this from repeating in the future.