New Delhi, May 4 -- In one of my interminable internal monologues, I told myself that it was, statistically, a matter of time for someone I loved to die on these streets. Everyone has a story about the ugliness we encounter on the streets, behind wheels. I have covered such stories, and I have driven past such accidents. Everyone in Delhi knows someone who died in a road accident. Like people in Paris are likely to know a baker and people in London are likely to know stock market analysts.

The story I carry in my bones is repeated over and over in this city. We are, after all, recklessly driving a tank on crowded streets, without seat belts and traffic laws. The government, while doing nothing at all about it, records approximately 3,00,...