The ‘Aritra’ camera and computer-based training system institutionalised by Maruti-Suzuki at some of its driver training institutes will go a long way in improving driving abilities in India

One of my former editors once warned me, ‘never, ever make absolute statements unless you can back it up.’ So I will not state that all Indians are woeful drivers. A large number of my fellow countrymen are, however, pretty bad drivers, and while they know how to change gears and how to get the car moving, when it comes to parking and basic etiquette like indicators or even lane adherence, even you will admit that they are pretty bad. The big thing that I have to adapt to whenever I am driving abroad is not usually to do with driving on the left-hand seat but to remind myself that I am not in India and road markings matter, and that I have to follow every rule. In India, let us be honest, sometimes you have no option but to break a few rules while driving because everyone around you is doing the same. That is no excuse for poor driving, I admit, but the failure is primarily of enforcement. While some traffic police, such as those in New Delhi and Mumbai, are better than most, traffic management and rules do not seem to exist in places like Noida that abuts the capital.

So it is not surprising that over 1.5 lakh people died on Indian roads last year according to official statistics, the number could well be much higher. That is over ten per cent of global traffic fatalities, a lower proportion than India’s global population share but higher than India’s share of the global vehicular population. While eliminating traffic accidents and fatalities are a pipe dream, reducing them is indeed possible through better driving habits even if enforcement of rules lags behind. Using indicators, helmets and lane discipline by themselves will help reduce accidents even if vehicles are not equipped with modern safety aids such as anti-lock brakes (ABS) which will be mandatory on all vehicles from April next year.

But the reason many of us have poor driving habits is primarily one of poor training. You tend to pick up driving habits from your trainers and your family, and poor driving habits, such as incessant honking, can be proven to be passed down from generation to generation. To be fair, driving schools have come a long way since I learnt to drive at the age of 16; my trainer was, for lack of a nicer word, a glorified tout. That said, I was not prepared for the advanced driver training imparted by Maruti-Suzuki at their Institute of Driving and Traffic Research (IDTR) at Delhi’s Sarai Kale Khan, located right next to the exit from the Barapullah elevated road. Maruti-Suzuki, which has established several IDTRs across the country, many in collaboration with state governments, has set up several Maruti Driving Schools at several of its dealerships.

Of course, it is Maruti’s interest to establish so many driving schools, after all that will grow the pool of potential customers for the carmaker. But I was quite surprised to see the Aritra system that it has installed. This is a system that uses cameras to gauge a driver’s abilities on the road. The track at the IDTR is a very tight and twisting one and I must admit that the training is pretty intense, and I did not do particularly well in the Reverse-S turn, that is to reverse the car through a ‘S’ bend while keeping six-inches of margin on either side. And on this front, I have to admit that I have been spoiled as a driver, because almost all the cars that I drive nowadays have a reversing camera and if not that, reversing sensors.

And here is the thing; a friend of mine who is an airline pilot told me once that every year he has to go through ‘refresher’ training and while he is flying the same A320 family aircraft, he has to spend time in the simulator practising worst-case scenarios and even more basic things. The training he has to go through keeps his skills up-to-date even though he flies a plane three-times a week on average. The fact is that as drivers it is not a bad idea for us to go through similar refresher courses once in a while, to undertake the same training that some beginners have to go through. It reminds us that driving, as natural as it has become for us, and for some of us, much more than others, is not something that we did regularly as humans a century ago. And training also teaches us that we all have some bad driving habits and can remove them.

I am actually glad that I went to see and experience the system at IDTR, it was important for me to learn that I do still have some flaws and I must continue to learn. None of us is perfect and we must always keep learning and put our egos aside. I hope Maruti-Suzuki takes this system across the country and other manufacturers whether they are two-wheeler or commercial vehicle manufacturers install similar systems across the country. Training better drivers may not be the only solution to reducing the chaos and the number of fatalities on Indian roads but it is a start and an impressive one at that.