Design a Front View Mirror

One of the TV channels showed a harrowing video-clip on the 24^th October 2019, during a news bulletin. I viewed this news bulletin in Bangalore. A three-year old child, wearing a bag and looking as if she was going to her play-school, was walking around a bus parked in the drive way in front of a building. The child was walking one or two feet in front of a standing bus. Just then the bus started moving and knocked the child down and its left front wheel ran over the child. The video had been obviously been recorded by an overhead closed circuit TV camera. The video disturbed me so much that I have been thinking about it frequently the whole day.

I looked up the Web to locate a related news item. This led to another painful experience, showing me shocking reports and photographs of similar “accidents” all over the world.

Buses are often designed such that drivers don’t have near vision in front. Pedestrians and children often pay the price with their lives. A simple solution seems to fix a “front view mirror” to give drivers some near vision in front. This would save lives and also make it easier for bus drivers to avoid pot holes, puppies and kittens on the road. Near vision would also help drivers navigate tight parking areas which force the drivers to take the buses very close to the wall.

Rear view mirrors costing about Rs 5,000 can be modified and fixed on a bus in an appropriate position. I hope that students of design and engineering would do projects and develop this idea further. Equally importantly, we must run campaigns to bring this to the attention of authorities who give permits to buses and lorries.

Please also read

43 CHILDREN DIE IN ROAD ACCIDENTS IN INDIA EVERY DAY
https://sites.ndtv.com/roadsafety/43-children-die-road-accidents-india-every-day-2546/

Srinivasan Ramani