[sustran] BMW, Safety, and Equity

Todd Litman litman at islandnet.com
Wed Jan 20 18:41:40 JST 1999


Here are two contrasting views of the German automaker that you may love to
hate.


Traffic Technology International
--------------------------------
Dec. 1998/Jan. 1999, p. 7

BMW Attacks Transport Policy

Normally placid German automaker BMW has gone on something of a warpath in
recent months with a series of public attacks on emerging German and EU
transport policy ideas. Two topics, that of a national speed limit on
Germany's autobahnen and proposed EC "fair traffic" pricing, have faced the
onslaught of one of Europe's most powerful companies.

In its criticisms of motorway speed limit proposals, BMW says, "General
speed limits do not solve environmental and traffic problems." Citing
Germany's high-speed road network as an economic advantage the company says
that imposing a speed limit on motorways would "encourage more drivers to
seek alternative routes" to more dangerous sections of road.

The company continues: "The introduction of a general speed limit threatens
to reduce the demand for high-tech vehicles and optional safety features
and therefore the automotive industry to lose its leading role in the
international market."

A better solution, says BMW, is "to promote measures to encourage a new
approach and the introduction of new technologies. For example, a
coordinated network of all modes of transport, the establishment of
intelligent traffic management systems, the development of alternative
propulsion systems and a progromme to raise the awareness and sense of
responsibility of all road users."

In another policy attack, BMW singles out the EC's "Fair Transport Pricing"
What Paper put forward by transport commissioner Neil Kinnock in July. The
EC's proposals aim to internalize some of the external costs of road
traffic through noise taxes, congestion charging and other road pricing
measures. BMW says that some of the schemes use "calculation methods that
are inappropriate to the problem, and costs that are irrelevant". The
company says the theory is fine, but in practice such schemes fall down
when faced with real world situations. Instead, BMW says that the EC should
recognize also the external benefits of road traffic and see "a solution
that causes the lease total damage" under the principle of the "cheapest
cost provider".

"The European Union is in danger of making a grave mistake. If the theory
propounded in the White Paper is put into practice, then Europe will be at
a serious economic disadvantage compared with competition in the USA and
Asia," says BMW.



>A tale of rich and poor in India
>
> Monday, January 18, 1999
> John Stackhouse
>
> New Delhi -- India
>
> Until late one Saturday night, he was the epitome of a brash
> new India: the son of a millionaire, studying in the U.S.,
> tooling around in a new BMW and spending his winter
> holidays at jet-set parties in New Delhi. But that was before
> the accident that brought Sanjeev Nanda's world crashing
> down this month in a heap of scandal and disgrace.
>
>
> The "BMW brat," as Mr. Nanda was labelled in the Indian
> press, stands accused of driving drunk in his father's new
> sports car, killing six pedestrians on his way home from a
> party and fleeing the scene. It would have been a normal
> hit-and-run case -- they happen every day in New Delhi --
> except that three of the dead were police constables. And
> Mr. Nanda is the son of an arms dealer and grandson of a
> retired admiral.
>
> In a capital city that has lost almost all its grace, the accident
> has come to symbolize a generation that many
> Delhi-wallahs see as the most callous, corrupt and uncouth
> since the last days of the Mogul Empire. They also wonder
> whether this is a turning point for the Puppie generation, as
> Punjabi yuppies are known.
>
> The BMW accident occurred shortly after 3:30 a.m., on
> Jan. 10, when the car driven by Mr. Nanda hit a police
> barricade at such a high speed that the collision crushed the
> fender, shattered the windshield and severed the limbs of
> some of the victims. Like a character from Bonfire of the
> Vanities, the driver of the brand-new black sports car sped
> around the corner and continued down the street to a
> mansion owned by a family friend, where he allegedly
> washed off bloodstains and draped the vehicle in a
> car-blanket.
>
> Police found the car the next morning, by following a trail of
> engine oil to the four-storey mansion of a prominent
> financier, Rajeev Gupta, whose son was also allegedly in the
> car.
>
> The 22-year-old Mr. Nanda, who faces a maximum
> sentence of life imprisonment, was denied bail and taken to
> the country's most notorious and grotty prison, Tihar Jail,
> where mass murderers and rapists reside. His high-school
> friends Sidharth Gupta and Manik Kapoor were charged
> with lesser crimes for being in the car, and were released on
> bail.
>
> For local newspapers and TV programs, the story has
> become India's answer to the O. J. Simpson trial -- a
> tragedy which has gripped the city, and exposed anger over
> the behaviour of an elite few.
>
> The day after the tragedy, police announced relief to the
> widows amounting to 75,000 rupees (about $2,700) each.
> The Nandas' BMW, imported in December and still bearing
> foreign plates, cost more than 60 times that, or more than
> 4=BD million rupees.
>
> Public ridicule notwithstanding, the nouveaux riches stood
> by their men. As the widows received the death benefits,
> the Gupta mansion in central New Delhi, where the BMW
> was hidden, was besieged by people in Mercedes-Benzes,
> Hondas and at least one Jaguar.
>
> A day later, at the bail hearing, the courtroom was so
> crowded with young men in European suits carrying mobile
> phones that the presiding magistrate had to order the
> devices switched off.
>
> Mr. Nanda's mother cried and pleaded with the magistrate
> to sentence her, not her son. "It is the parents who give their
> children the money and the Mercedes," she said, confusing
> the car in question with another one owned by her children.
>
> The magistrate ignored her plea, but announced 30,000
> rupees (about $1,075) bail for the two other accused. At
> that moment, several men pulled out wads of cash -- the
> equivalent of six months salary for a police constable -- and
> offered to pay. The bemused magistrate said he wanted a
> bond, not cash.
>
> The BMW saga started at a farmhouse party on the
> southern outskirts of New Delhi, where hundreds of
> business executives and leading politicians live in Beverley
> Hills luxury, filling their pools and irrigating their landscaped
> gardens with free water allotted for farmers. Police said Mr.
> Nanda, who was due to return to Wharton this week, left
> the party drunk and drove home at speeds of up to 150
> kilometres an hour on roads that have few working
> streetlights and are home to thousands of pavement
> dwellers.
>
> Legal experts said the charge of culpable homicide will be
> difficult to prove because it would require Mr. Nanda to
> have had knowledge that his driving could cause death.
> They said a lesser charge of negligence, which carries a
> maximum jail term of two years, would have been easier to
> win.
>
> But the public verdict may have been cast already. "After
> killing four persons (the fifth died later in hospital), they tried
> to hide the car and remove all evidence," said deputy police
> commissioner Pradeep Srivastava. "This is how these rich
> people in town have behaved."



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