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-Brian Mendonça

When the traffic police waved me down on Sunday morning, I thought it was to wish me a good day. Instead, he handed me a challan saying I was doing 49.

I was cruising down the (old) Mandovi bridge on a Sunday morning with not a vehicle in sight. Having picked up my Sunday papers from Varsha Book stall in Panjim, I was rushing for a First Holy Communion lunch at Siolim. 

I know the speed limit on the bridge says 30 but then I had not taken it seriously. Until then.

Though it’s 30 on the bridge it is 40 as you meet the road at the end of the bridge on the Porvorim side. This fact is hardly appreciated as it is covered by trees which reach down and cover the sign.

I was more interested in knowing how the chaps knew I was doing exactly 49, than in paying the fine of Rs. 300.

My nemesis was the newly acquired Laser Speed Radar Gun (LSRG). It can assess the speed of a vehicle 300 metres away and is portable.

Chastened by the experience I began to actually read the road signs more carefully. I drive 60 kms. from North Goa to South Goa and back almost every day.

I noticed, for example, that as I head out on the highway at Porvorim the speed limit is 50. There are always the vehicles which cock a snook at these traffic signs. They are a menace to others and to themselves.

Things have become so bad that when we sit for lunch, Dwayne - who's so into cars - often pipes in with, 'Dada what accident you saw today.' Unfortunately I hardly disappoint him.

When a vehicle is moving within the advised speed limit it is easier to brake and slow down. Where road work is underway - which is most of the way, on NH 66 from Bambolim to Verna – speed limits are usually down to 40 and 30 kms. per hour. At the tortuous Verna climb with mud swirling round you, it grinds to 20. 

How can one forget the two-wheelers which hurtle towards you from the opposite side -- or dart across the highway from the villages on either side?

If one speeds on a kaccha road one risks developing a serious back ache or a pain in the neck. Add to that the wear and tear on the vehicle. Also when road work is going on, there are sudden diversions which require you to act fast and manoeuvre the vehicle into the right lane.

Observing road signs becomes critical at night when the lighting is poor.  Speeding vehicles in the opposite direction can set up the scene for a head-on collision.

If you are over-speeding, and the vehicle ahead brakes suddenly, you have no choice but to ram into the vehicle ahead. This is what happened to Shabana Azmi on the Mumbai-Pune expressway. The driver was over-speeding.

The incident on the bridge has changed my style of driving. I am more attentive to the road signs and the speed limits on the way. I am more relaxed and have a more comfortable ride. I try to keep at a steady 50. The icing on the cake is I save on fuel.

Petroleum Conservation Research Association (pcra.org) advises that 45 kmph is the optimum speed for fuel efficiency. You can save up to 20%.

Curiously I end up arriving at almost the same time. Driving cautiously is a game changer. You owe it to yourself – and your family. 
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Published in Gomantak Times Weekender, Panjim, Goa on Sunday, 9th February 2020. Photo of a speed limit sign on NH 66 in Goa. courtesy Navhind Times, Goa (2018).

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