Car Safety in India, kids and drivers make a worrisome threesome!

Truly, what goes in your mind when you send your kids alone with drivers/chauffeurs to tuition, games etc.?

Don’t you worry all the time when your kids go to a friend’s place with the chauffeur?

What you usually do in such situations? More often than not, a family member accompanies the child, right?

But can you really go with your child everywhere? Game classes, friend’s home, library, activity classes, going everywhere with them can become more complicated when their schedule gets busier. But how will you make your child independent and still keep them safe? With cases of harassment, child molestations, assaults by domestic helps and drivers making the news, I worry as a parent. All the time!

Why just blame the drivers. There are cases when parents just did not know what actually happened in the car. When children grow up, they have different kinds of friends and peer pressure. How do you know they are safe? How do you know they are going where they are supposed to go? When your child has a friend with her or him in the car, you would want them to be safe, wouldn’t you?

My Chauffer Troubles

I am sure you don’t feel comfortable when you leave your car alone with chauffeurs for a long time?You don’t know what is happening with the car while you’re gone.  Your favorite car might very well be getting used as a pickup taxi by the driver for a few extra bucks, while you are attending that important meeting or being used for joyrides and personal errands by the chauffeurs while you are attending that family function.

Basically, you just don’t know what is happening with your car behind your back.

For example, my car was parked, and some miscreant had thrown a big stone at the windshield cracking it. He was on a bike. No one could identify him. Another time we were traveling, and after returning home found our 3-month-old car’s gate dented and badly scratched. The driver mentioned a brush with a truck on the night he had dropped us off. That was his version with no way of us knowing what he said was true or not and raising doubts if it was safe to let him drive our child home from school. We changed our chauffeur. That was the only solution available. But I still worry.

When I travel with my daughter or send a family member to pick her up from school, I worry. Someday she may have to go alone in the car. How safe is she? While my new driver appears to be a responsible man, there’s no guarantee about other people and their driving negligence.

The temporary driver from the agency: Is the car safe?

Another temporary driver from the agency had substance abuse problems and fell asleep at the car park. He was supposed to take my mom to her friend’s place. I thank the higher powers, for saving my mom from traveling that day. I worry each time I have to hire a driver from the agency, and my mom travels alone. She visits her bhajan group and the temple, and it’s not always possible to go with her. How do I ensure her safety?

Car accidents and incidents of lousy behaviors on the road make me feel worried. While we can all strive to follow the rules and be responsible citizens, the problem is with many who don’t follow the rules. Chauffeurs, temporary or permanent, come with their baggage and are on their best behavior in front of you, but what happens when the young and elderly are alone with them?

Car safety for children and the Elderly

A few days back, I heard about a family being heckled all the way to a restaurant and back by a bike gang in Kolkata. Imagining such a scenario with the child alone gives me sleepless nights.

One good way is to understand the nature, conduct and driving habits of your driver. That’s an excellent idea for the long term, but what can you do daily to keep your children and elderly family members safe while traveling?

Can technology solve the problem?

While accompanying kids everywhere and every time is not a viable and oft-repeatable option and dropping the chauffeurs off entirely is not workable either for most working couples, there must be a way out.

I firmly believe that the way out is technology. Can there be a gadget that can do real-time video streaming and send mobile alerts? Can there be a solution that is temper-proof? Is there a way to get alerted if a stranger gets in the car?

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I’m not sure if such a solution exists. Are tech companies listening? Can they help stressed-out mothers like me?