She isn't a cop and she can't challan traffic offenders. All she has is a stick and a stern demeanour but 57-year-old Dorris Francis knows how important her job is to rush-hour commuters on the accident-prone Aitbaar Pushta intersection at the Delhi-Ghaziabad border on NH24. Dorris lost her 17-year-old daughter, Niki, six years ago after a speeding car crashed into their autorickshaw at this very spot. Months later, the grieving mother took up her "post" to ensure no one else suffered Niki's fate.
For several years now, Dorris has played traffic cop from 7am-10am every day, directing vehicles and pedestrians converging from Khoda, Indirapuram and Delhi. The cut, a few hundred metres from UP gate, is illegal, carved out by local residents who must otherwise take a lengthy detour. Police say each time it is barricaded, local residents break it down. Policemen are deployed at times but when this TOI correspondent visited the intersection on Saturday morning, Dorris was alone at her "post".
Dorris says there has been only one fatal accident here since she took charge, on a Sunday morning when she was at church. It was around eight months ago and one of their neighbours, a woman, was killed. It brought back memories of the morning of November 9, 2008 when Dorris, her husband Victor and daughter Niki were returning home to Khoda in an autorickshaw.
"Niki was ill and we were returning from Delhi after a medical check-up. Just as we turned right towards Khoda, a speeding car hit us. All three of us had to be hospitalized after the accident. Niki sustained severe injuries to her lungs. She languished on a hospital bed for a year before dying of her injuries," recalls Dorris.
Even though she volunteered to do a job the police should've done, there were obstacles in the way. In 2011, barricades were erected at the cut, which is the shortest route thousands of residents from Khoda take to Indirapuram where they do odd jobs to feed their families. "My son was arrested in the fracas. But the issue was resolved after a few compassionate senior police officials and citizens intervened. I got justice," says Dorris, who requested the police not to put up barricades and offered to manage the area herself.
Despite the onslaught of age and ailments, and a severely diabetic husband who is mostly confined to home, Dorris has determinedly carried on. She battles chronic hypertension and suffered from a liver ailment and a blood infection in the past, but nothing can stop her on the job, she says.
Her work has not gone unnoticed. "We appreciate the kind of service Dorris is doing by supplementing the work of police in traffic management. It's always a positive sign if citizens put forth efforts to help cops in policing matters in a constructive manner," said Dharmendra Yadav, SSP of Ghaziabad.
Niki's eight-year-old daughter lives with the couple after her father too passed away a few years ago. Dorris's son, who drives an auto, helps run the family. "Till I have life within me, I will continue with the work. I will ensure that not a single life is lost to rash driving. If God has given me the gift of life, it should be used for the benefit of society at large," she says.
(Source: Times of India, 3rd November 2014)
