Bike Accident on ORR

The ghastly superbike bike accident in Hyderabad yesterday which left a teenager dead and another one in hospital in critical condition. When I look back at the incident there are several things I find which are nagging and not exactly at the right place, some thing which should have been foreseen which would have reduced criticality of Azahar’s son’s condition and the other kid might have survived.

First thing i see is what the guys were wearing while taking a ride on the expressway, as I noticed they were dressed in ordinary shoes, jeans, T-shirts and for protection a helmet, now that’s wholly insufficient, any superbike aficionado would know that fireproof leather overalls, biking shoes, gloves and the best quality Arai or X-lite helmet are an absolute must while riding high capacity bikes and trying to break the sound barrier.

Any superbike poster in India or across the world always shows the rider in this right riding gear, in fact the Suzuki motorcycle homepage on web shows a rider on GSX-R 1000 wearing an Arai helmet and Alpinestar bike overalls with armor protection for chest and spine. Imagine if the kids were using the right set of protection, the outcome could have been little comforting.

Today’s teenagers, especially the ultra rich ones, know how to drive a monster bike but don’t think about the safety measures to be followed for responsible and safe driving. The protective gear costs just a fraction of the cost of the superbike and I am sure who ever can afford a thirteen lakh bike can spend a couple more on an Alpinestar full body suit, shoes, gloves and helmet.

The motorcycle manufacturing companies and dealers should promote the protective accessories at the same time they are trying to sell expensive bikes in fact their should be a customer education seminars at bike showrooms informing ways of handling big bikes, safe driving and protection required.

The other thing worth mentioning is that the outer ring road work is not yet complete even two years after inauguration, there is missing divider at some places, sign boards are not proper and missing at many places, there is no arrangement of lights and of course there is not patrolling for errant two wheelers or stray cattle.

The authorities should take a note of this, this accident could have been completely avoided if the bike riders were denied entry on a four wheel exclusive road.

AP Police Bomb Squad Demonstration

Yesterday in our office Andhra Pradesh Police conducted a demo of Bomb Disposal, the personal from the local Bomb Disposal Unit gave a fetching display of how bombs are increasingly becoming a weapon of choice for the terrorists all over the world. They showed us the materials which are used and the devices which are used to hide and detonate them. The spell binding display of bomb detection and diffusing them left all of us in awe.

The presentation started off with a video clip from a latest Hollywood Oscar award winning movie ‘Hurt Locker’, it showed how the US army soldiers diffuse a bomb in war torn Iraq and how they fight the insurgency, later the guys showed us the live video of how the AP Police bomb disposal squad diffused the bomb at location of Mecca Masjid blast site, really tricky situation but ultimately the detonator was disconnected from the explosive and every one on the spot was relieved.

The contrasting thing between the incident in Iraq and the one in Hyderabad Mecca Masjid was that the US army soldiers had full body armor, a robotic drone to carry the bomb, the latest equipment to handle such situations while here in Hyderabad, AP police people did not had a single protective gear at hand, not even safety glasses, if something had gone wrong that day, another casualty would have occurred in the line of duty, I guess the life’s a lot worth if one is a US citizen.

Nevertheless, we watched the video with bated breath, the two bomb disposal people found out the crucial wire to cut and then went ahead to dismantle the bomb, people rejoiced and praised them, another feather in AP police cap and a request to the concerned to equip city police better, even the police personal have the right to feel safe while at work.