Drivers, helpers being trained in ‘managing to flee’

He used to repair dents in cars in Bhangamotor and with those earnings, along with his brother's income from driving a CNG-run auto-rickshaw wife's income from working as hired domestic help, he ran his family of five.

A different kind of running changed Shabuj's life, however. One day, the driver of a car he had completed working on sped off with the vehicle without paying, and Shabuj, 26, sprinted after the vehicle, weaving through traffic, dodging oncoming buses and cars and finally caught up with the red Axio at the intersection.

At that point, the owner of a bus company was sitting smoking his cigarette at one of the other repair shops.

"This boy has a talent for chasing cars. Imagine how good he would be at managing to flee the scene of an accident," Amijati Mari whispered to one of his associates, before telling the latter to recruit him immediately.

"First you have to manage, then you have to flee. Well not you; he has to flee and he has to manage to flee. Both are equally important. He seems to have the fleeing part down, we need to recruit him to get the managing part drilled into him."

Amid protests, arrests and road safety acts and what not due to loss of countless lives run over by things on wheels, transport leaders like Mari have started training their workers to escape efficiently and remove as much liability as possible.

Like Shabuj, thousands of bus, truck and pick-up drivers are first recruited as helpers and then given the wheel to drive on the highways of the country. This information was revealed yesterday by Bakkoi Kormo, the media relations officer of A Law Monitoring Agency.

"Talented sprinters like Shabuj are picked up by the bus services, because they need them when things go bad. Their training is very high-level; you could almost say they are like the spies that you see in James Bond, Mission Impossible, or the Bourne series. Or like Batman!" Bakkoi Kormo said excitedly.

Mixing up his metaphors and not seeming to care, the official said, "At first they are like Robin. They help. And when they have learned the trade of managing to flee, they become Batman, or Ethan Hunt."

Asked when these skills are most useful, Bakkoi Kormo replied slightly impatiently, "When there are accidents, of course. You see, you people only blame drivers, but these are highly skilled professionals, and the accidents are mostly the fault of the victims."

How do they always manage to flee, asked another reporter. "Their training and the management. They are very good at running, we have found. And I think we are ignoring the managing part of the phrase 'managed to flee'. For example, most of these guys never have licences – they are like secret agents. Or Batman! They just disappear. It's really quite clever. Also it takes time to get to the spot of an accident, so that helps them too.

"And I would like to add here that these services are valuable. The country would come to a standstill without them."

Meanwhile, this newspaper contacted Shabuj, who is now a helper, and has fled three scenes so far. He said other than raised fitness levels, his family of five are not much better off, although his wife is happier having him around less.

Finally, back at the press conference, a reporter asked Bakkoi Kormo how they knew so much about the operations and recruitment. "We have our ways, and in this particular case, one of my superiors was at the repair shop talking to Amijati Mari sir when they spotted Shabuj."