This 74-year-old teacher from Pune is giving traffic lessons to reckless bikers
Nirmala Gokhale from Pune saw bikers riding on pavements and breaking traffic rules. She took the matter into her hands by blocking the pavement.
A lot of us are cognizant of traffic rules, but not many people follow them. Increasing population has led to heavy traffic on Indian roads, which has resulted in reckless driving and breaking traffic rules.
As per the WHO Global Report on Road Safety 2018, India accounts for almost 11 percent of accident-related deaths in the world. India also ranks first among 199 countries with regard to the number of road accident deaths reported by World Road Statistics (2018).
Nirmala Gokhale, a senior citizen, faced a similar situation recently in Pune's Canal Road as bikers took to the pavements to shorten their commute time. Nirmala was passing by and had to take matter into her hands to stop them from encroaching footpaths.
Nirmala Gokhale (Image: Hindustan Times)
The 74-year-old retired teacher strongly believes that motorcyclists show high disregard towards civic regulations, and that they must correct their ways.
“If you want to continue on the footpath, you will have to hit me and go. Else, get down and ride on the road,” she told a young man, and made him ride on the road, reports Indian Express.
The video of Nirmala stopping motorcyclists was posted on Twitter, and support chimed in praising her bravery, dedication, and responsibility. Following this, many people demanded the relevant authorities to be held accountable for the motorcyclists’ reckless behaviour.
People commented on social media platforms that Nirmala had to take to the streets to protest the lax behaviour of bikers as the city’s traffic police was not being responsible and doing their job.
Nirmala’s voice is now gaining momentum as the video received 497.1k views, 1.4k likes, and was retweeted 400 times, and is still counting.
Among the flood of tweets in response to Nirmala's video was also a tweet by Pune Police.
(Edited by Megha Reddy)
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