I got talking to a couple of backpackers while travelling from Panjim to Bombay on the hydrofoil a few years ago. They told me a horrific tale. They were using local buses to criss-cross southern India (you know the type, living on £1 a day then going back home to the £8000 a term private school) and were on a night journey through Kerala. They were dozing at the back of the bus while the driver was dozing at the front when suddenly the bus hits something and comes to a stop at the side of the road. As they looked through the window into the darkness they could make out figures running towards the bus from a village in the distance. Other passengers got off the bus to see what was going on. There was lots of shouting and screaming by now and a ripple of panic passed through those still on the bus. The screaming got louder and then turned into cheering. The two backpackers grabbed their bags and got off the bus. Other traffic had stopped by now and the roadside was filled with light from trucks and cars. There was a large crowd gathered at the front of the bus but the two travellers couldn't see what the crowd were watching. Other travellers from the bus asked the two backpackers if they wanted to continue their journey on a bus that had stopped to witness the commotion. They did and it wasn't until they were seated on that second packed Indian bus that they learned the horrible truth. The driver of the original bus was drunk and he had smashed into a young man from the village who was walking along the side of the road killing him. The villagers who came rushing to the scene saw that the driver was drunk and in their grief and anger beat him to death with rocks and sticks in the headlights of his own bus. True story.