MillenniumPost
Opinion

Put brakes on cheap thrills

Jason Stratham did it in the Transporter series. Drove at breakneck speed, razed down roadside shops, risked his own life and limb to defeat the bad boys and made millions at the box office. Before and after him, a certain gentleman named James Bond has also done rash things with a fast car and faster women. Car chases, in fact, have been rather profitable for Hollywood. There have been franchises like the Fast and Furious where the car is the hero, and the hero is a sidekick. Our own films have also tried to emulate these tricks, though with lesser finesse and box office success.

But while these high-octane action sequences have appealed to a certain kind of audience, trying to replicate the same in real life has led to disastrous consequences. Add to that, the queer ways in which the law of this land bends for the rich and the (in)famous and you have innocent victims bleeding to death on the roadside.

Our city roads have been witness to several murderous car accidents, with Bollywood actors or business scions, high on alcohol or party drugs, behind the wheels. Some have gotten away, while others have been awarded sentences that have done little justice to those affected by their crimes.

Last Friday, in Gurgaon, a BMW rammed into an Indigo so hard that the smaller car flipped up in the air and overturned many times. The impact was reportedly so fierce that the engines, batteries and other equipment of both the cars were tossed over a distance of 30 metre. Inside the Indica were, among others, a pregnant woman who died on the spot. The BMW belonged to a property dealer from Gurgaon. A 21-year-old Delhi University student was one of the occupants of the BMW.

There’s a pattern here. In most cases, kids of the rich and powerful, if not the rich and the powerful themselves, break all road rules while they are behind the wheels, confident that money power and political connections will see them through. In most cases, they do. Which in turn encourages others to emulate. Our traffic cops need to be more vigilant and unforgiving in such cases. Same goes for the investigating officers who file the initial reports and the judges. Only exemplary punishment can deter the speed demons that take away innocent lives for cheap thrills. And the Censors need to enforce a disclaimer every time there’s a car chase up on the screen. Heroism isn’t killing innocents.
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