The country is still coming to terms with the Kurnool bus tragedy in Andhra Pradesh, in which 20 of the 44 passengers travelling between Hyderabad and Bengaluru on an overnight bus perished after the bus they were travelling was engulfed in flames after it collided with and dragged a crashed motorcycle. According to the sequence of events that are only now becoming apparent, two young local men, under the influence of alcohol, crashed a motorcycle into a divider, in which the rider of the motorcycle died on the spot.
The speeding bus ran over the crashed motorcycle and dragged it for several hundred metres before coming to a halt. However, the dragging caused the motorcycle's fuel tank to spill over, and the sparks generated by the dragging ignited a massive fire that later spread to the entire bus. Crucially, those among the passengers who were awakened by the crash managed to rescue themselves from the vehicle with only minor injuries. This begs the obvious question. If there was time to alert the passengers that the bus would soon be ablaze, why didn’t someone responsible do it?
Those who perished did so because they couldn’t flee the bus in time, because they were sleeping at the time of the accident, and while others escaped, it was too late for them to realise what was happening to try and save themselves. Most forms of transport, be it air, ship, or train, have trained staff to assist passengers in the time of an emergency. They are trained to ensure that every last passenger is assisted before they themselves can flee the stricken vessel. Clearly, in the case of this bus accident, the driver only thought of saving himself from the wreckage with little to or no thought of the passengers he was carrying. A simple sense of responsibility of first rushing to notify passengers of the impending disaster, could possibly have saved more lives.
It is no secret that most bus drivers receive little to no training beyond controlling the vehicle they are charged with. The training they receive is no different from that of any commercial vehicle driver or truck driver, most of whom are largely self-trained and learn as they go along, meaning passenger safety, emergency evacuations, etc are not part of the drills they are made to undergo.
Questions need to be asked not just of the people operating the bus, but also of the regulatory authorities, especially the RTO over the grant of licences to operate commercial passenger vehicles sans such necessary training. Accidents are sometimes avoidable, especially given the seeming lack of civic sense among road users in this country. However, operators of commercial passenger vehicles are not prepared for known risks, and their acts reek of sheer carelessness and dereliction of duty.
The intercity bus transport system in India has come a long way, with bigger, safer, and more comfortable buses now being deployed on most routes. However, just as in a car where the car’s safety rating means nothing if you are not wearing your seat belt, a better bus will mean nothing if drivers are not adequately briefed on essentials such as the use of a fire extinguisher, taking responsibility for passengers' lives, and the use of emergency doors and other evacuation methods.
It’s about time the authorities woke up to the fact that road transport is to be treated with the seriousness it deserves and not casually as they currently do.
