Fit to drive
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It’s wedding season again and spirits are in free flow. Which means that small talk at social gatherings nowadays inevitably turns to the sudden proscription of driving after drinking. Gone are the insistent calls for ‘one for the road’ since the road is the last place you want to be at the controls of a motorised vehicle after a drink or two.
Despite the inconvenience it has caused to diehard devotees of Bacchus, the campaign seems to have been received with approval in general. Police records already show a downward trend in drunk-driving fatalities and many a family member must be at ease knowing that their loved ones with a more intense love of the bottle are going to come home dead sober. Of course, there have been losers such as the restaurant business that thrived on the sale of booze, but on the flip side it is quite likely that the night taxi business is revelling in this unexpected bonanza.
Driving in a state of inebriation is perhaps one of the most dangerous things one can do not only to those who indulge in it but also because it poses a danger to the public as well. The freewheeling tendency to get completely sloshed and then hop onto a motorbike or get behind the steering wheel needed to be checked. This clampdown was hence long overdue in Nepal.
But like many well-intentioned government interventions, this one, too, is not without problems. Common are the protestations by those whose cultural practices demand the partaking of alcoholic beverages. By an indiscriminate application of the law, it certainly seems unfair that someone taking a shot or two in the name of tradition is lumped together with unrepentant boozers.
I checked the law to see if it does make any distinction. But, no, there it is in Rule 142 of the Vehicle and Transportation Management Act: anyone driving a vehicle shall not drink. I think for a country that until 50 years ago officially recognised a third of the population as matwali, or those who imbibe intoxicating spirits, the law is a bit too harsh in taking such a puritanical position.
As with any other group, not all matwalis were or are alcoholics. Tradition, however, says otherwise and alcohol is an integral part of some rituals as
anyone who has tasted the holy ‘water’ from Guhyeswori Temple knows. It says a lot about Nepal’s eclectic religious heritage that even the most abstinent pundit merrily slurps that mixture of water and alcohol.
The loosening of state-imposed mores has meant that it has become socially acceptable for other social groups also to use alcohol as a means of celebration either in emulation of their matwali neighbours or by adopting western customs of raising a glass in toast. Given this reality, perhaps the law needs to be revised to allow for a more nuanced interpretation of what driving after drinking means in everyday life.
Many countries have adopted the blood alcohol content (BAC), or the proportion of alcohol in blood, as a means of verifying whether one is fit to drive or not, and permissible limits range from 0.02 to 0.08. A general rule of thumb for the latter is one drink (at 15 ml of whisky-like drinks) per hour, which means that amount of alcohol usually leaves one in good control of one’s faculties, including the ability to drive even though various other factors such as sex and weight also weigh in.
Using BAC as a control mechanism obviously would require investment in technologies that our cops certainly cannot afford. Breathalysers can indicate BAC but the Kathmandu police apparently are making do with just a dozen or so, and hence the current reliance on the olfactory senses of policemen.
But there is also what is called the Standardised Field Sobriety Tests that could be easily be introduced at hardly any cost. This involves making suspected drunk-drivers go through a series of three tests: 1) Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus, which requires the testee to follow, without jerking his/her eyes, an object such as a pen that is being slowly moved horizontally; 2) Walk and Turn, in which the suspect is made to take nine heel-to-toe steps in a straight line and return without going off balance; 3) One-Leg Stand, for which the suspect stands on one leg for 30 seconds without swaying drunkenly. The cumulative results of these tests correctly identify drink-impaired drivers in over 90 percent of the cases.
This would be a more humane way to tackle cases of mild drinking, and cheaply, too, even as the vigilance against hardcore drunk-driving continues with even more force.
There are a few other legal provisions that one wishes were implemented as well. Take the one on speed limits: 80 kmph for small vehicles, 40 for scooters and tempos, 50 for motorcycles, 50 for heavy vehicles in mountainous areas and 70 in the plains. The law is also specific on the speed limit for all kinds of traffic in populated areas: 40 kmph. Whoever drafted the law has probably never driven anything and this unrealistic requirement certainly requires some revision. But that does not prevent the police from checking the reckless driving and over-speeding by public buses, whether mini, micro or regular ones, for the sole reason that such driving endangers the lives of so many passengers.
Since so many people are affected the authorities could start enforcing the very elaborate specifications the law has laid out for public vehicles, including the precise dimensions of the seats, inside height, condition of windows, number of passengers, etc.
The law also requires that headlights be turned on at nightfall, but it is a common sight to see drivers relying on their presumed extra-sensory perceptions to navigate. The police should clamp down on such drivers who probably believe they are saving on something by keeping the lights off but pose a danger to themselves and others on the road.
While they are at it, they could also perhaps begin a re-education campaign to make driving safer. For instance, the practice of using the right indicator to signal an intent to turn right as well as to the following vehicle to overtake does not make sense and needs to be replaced with something less confusing and less contradictory. And this nuisance of flashing the high beam to demand right of way should also be put to an end. It should have been, as it is in many countries, that flashing your lights means, ‘After you’; instead, here it means, ‘Here I come! Make way!’
There are many other quirks to driving in Nepal that need to be smoothened out, especially when we are likely to see some high-speed traffic with the planned widening of the Ring Road and other high-speed roads. If back in 1967 Sweden could switch from driving on the left side to the right without any hitch, with the advanced communication technologies we have nowadays, it should not be all too difficult for us to encourage and then enforce safer ways of driving.
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