18 Seconds…

Greetings to you this Monday Morning!!

As I waited at the red light on University road on my Yamaha RX-100, I watched the timer next to the red light, clock down - 40-39-38-17-36……the timer told me how long I had to wait for the light to turn green. It was noon and the sun was beating down badly…
Traffic was sparse, with hardly anyone out on the road. There were hardly a couple of vehicles waiting next to me for the light to turn green… There was no traffic cop either.
I watched the timer again……22-21-20-19-18…As it hit 18, a motorcycle whizzed past me. The young man on the bike exhibited NO respect whatsoever for the system…
And worse, he paid the price. He completely misjudged the traffic coming on from the right side of the intersection. They had the green light and so it was their right to move on…He raced a few meters ahead of me…… A moment later I heard the screeching of rubber on hot tar as drivers made desperate attempts to halt and then… “WHAM” one loud “BANG”… .He survived, but probably lost 4 weeks recovering from whatever happened to him.
18 seconds of patience would have made a big difference.

How often we see people beating the system. My experience reminded me of what I read in one of Zig Ziglar’s book. He writes “Entrepreneur Claudio Claravolo, a Psychiatrist from Italy cashed in big time on a mandatory seat belt law. He invented a “security Shirt” a simple yet devious design. It was a white Tee Shirt with a diagonal black stripe designed to deceive the Police into believing that the driver was wearing a seat belt. The inventor and the drivers who wore it fooled the law but ultimately they fooled no one but themselves and the first collision proved this clearly.
Systems and rules are built not to hold us back but to help us. Without a red light or a divider strip there would only be chaos but also no one would cross the intersection. It is necessary to respect the red light not only for safety but also for movement of traffic.

The next time we get this urge of beating the system, let us remember the young man who lost 4 weeks trying to save 18 seconds.
Have a great week !!!