The recent horrific bus accident on the extremely busy and high-speed Yamuna Expressway in Uttar Pradesh has once again exposed the country’s transport system and long-distance passenger safety. After this tragic road accident, road safety experts, transport analysts and automotive engineers have put forward a revolutionary demand to the government and bus operators. Experts clearly say that unless pre-departure safety check of buses is made mandatory before every single trip on the lines of flights, it is impossible to completely stop such horrific accidents. Following incidents of sleeper buses running out of control at night and causing deaths due to technical glitches on high-speed corridors like Yamuna Expressway, there is a growing demand to implement a strict and zero-tolerance safety culture like aviation in the commercial passenger transport sector.
When sleeper and AC buses ply on the Yamuna Expressway in the silence of the night, a slight technical mistake or a blink of a second by the driver becomes a death sentence for the passengers. Preliminary investigation into the recent accident has revealed that there were some technical deficiencies in the bus and gross negligence in maintenance, which if checked just before the commencement of the journey, perhaps such a major mishap could have been avoided. In the present system, most of the bus operators, after covering long distances, run the same bus back on another route without any proper mechanical checkup. Drivers are under constant pressure to drive and no effective or transparent mechanism exists at toll plazas or bus depots to regularly check tyres, brake pads, steering mechanisms, wiring and emergency exits of buses. Due to this negligence, expressways are turning red with blood every day and innocent passengers are forced to lose their lives.
There is a strong need to implement ‘pre-departure checklist’ on the lines of airplanes.
Automobile and road safety experts argue that just as every commercial flight goes through a lengthy ‘safety checklist’ by ground engineers and pilots before take-off and every small part is checked, the same rules should now apply to long-haul sleepers and Volvo buses. Under this new system, before departure of every bus, a digital certificate or logbook must be filled by an authorized mechanic for checking the air pressure of tyres, brake oil, fog lights, reflectors, functioning of speed governor, and fire fighting equipment. Without this the bus should not be allowed to leave the terminal or depot. If the transport department makes arrangements for such random or mandatory digital checking at the toll plaza level itself, then more than half of the unfit vehicles running on the road will automatically be eliminated.
Questions raised on accountability of bus operators and monitoring of transport department
After this horrific accident, serious questions have been raised on the functioning of the state government and RTO. Experts say that the old tradition of paper submission and collecting fines will no longer work. Bus owners and transport companies have to ensure that every vehicle in their fleet is completely road-worthy. Also, there should be mandatory fixed working hours for drivers so that they can get adequate rest instead of driving continuously for 8-10 hours. Along with Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS) on modern highways like Yamuna Expressway, now is the time to establish stringent standards of security checks at the bus terminals themselves. The licenses of careless operators who play with the lives of the general public should be canceled forever and until this system of ‘flight-like safety check’ is implemented, the series of accidents on the expressway will not seem to stop.