Editorial
Bus drivers on a killing spree
Stricter measures necessary to rein them in
With the traffic congestion aggravating during the month of Ramadan and in spite of the government's addiction to ad hoc-ism as a way out, the city is witnessing a spate in the frequency of road mishaps.
Rash driving of buses and minibuses has claimed as many as three lives on two days in a row -- Tuesday and Wednesday -- in the capital. In the first incident, a four years old girl was crushed under the wheels of a bus, while another bus rammed into a rickshaw killing a 35-year old man and injuring his friend. On Wednesday, a mini bus hit a motorcycle killing a woman riding it and injuring the driver, her son.
With Ramadan mobility peaking, vehicles have to wait at the road intersections and the traffic signals in a logjam for a longer time than usual. It tells upon the patience of the bus drivers leading to the mad race to overtake one another. It has been observed that most of these accidents take place around the traffic signals and other intersections. And of all other mass transports, it has been further observed that the minibuses are highly prone to such speeding rush, as their drivers in most vases are untrained.
Impatient, nervy and sometimes amateurish drivers in control of buses that lack fitness are mostly to blame for the frequent deaths on the road.
The issue has been brought to the notice of the authorities again and again through the media. How often we have seen the police swinging into action after the resulting public furore over the deaths in the road mishaps! There may be a comparative lull for some days. And then the buses are again on a killing spree as before. This has become the normal pattern on the city roads as elsewhere in the country.
To add to the woes of the road users, one can also see haphazardly parked cars, rickshaws and buses hogging a big swathe of the space on a busy road. So, the motorised vehicles jostle with one another for space leading often to deadly mishaps.
Clearly, it is this off again and on again approach of the government in dealing with rash driving on the roads that has further emboldened the proclivity to impulsive driving further. To rein them in, it has become necessary for the authorities to arrange stricter punishment and quick delivery of justice against the wrongdoers. Particularly in the present Ramadan context, urgency needs to be felt to address the issue followed by appropriate action.
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