Travelling in a ‘running coffin’, why is no action taken against such buses and owners

New Delhi : On Wednesday morning at 5:15 AM, 18 people were killed in a collision between a double-decker sleeper bus and a tanker in Unnao, UP. 19 others are injured. Among the dead are 3 women and a child. The collision was so severe that both the bus and the tanker were shattered into pieces. The bus was on its way from Shivhar in Bihar to Delhi. Just a day before, on Tuesday, a bus going from Delhi to Siwan in Bihar met with an accident in Amethi, UP, in which 5 people died. Why are long distance buses proving to be ‘running coffins’? Why is no action taken against such buses and their owners? Let’s understand.

just because of accidents

A major cause of road accidents is human error. In most cases, accidents are caused by human error. These include over speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, talking to someone else while driving or using a mobile phone or doing something that distracts the attention, the driver falling asleep and not following traffic rules. Apart from these, accidents also occur due to problems in the vehicle such as brake failure, tyre problems.

Nowadays buses run at very high speeds due to the construction of excellent highways and expressways. The speed of vehicles has increased because the roads are good. But there is a limit to the maximum speed. If buses and other vehicles follow it, there will not be so many accidents. Accidents will surely happen if traffic rules are not followed. In the Unnao bus accident, information is coming out that the accident happened due to overtaking. While overtaking, the bus overspeeded and collided with a tanker. Similarly, the accident that happened in Amethi on Tuesday also seems to be the result of negligence. The driver had parked the bus on the road and the vehicle coming from behind hit it. Parking a bus or any vehicle on the road, even if it is parked a little to the side, is like inviting an accident. Accidents also happen when visibility is low due to fog in winters or due to rain in monsoon.

Another major reason for these increasing bus accidents is that drivers do not get enough sleep. It is often seen that drivers in long distance buses are overworked. They feel sleepy due to driving for hours without sleep or just 2-3 hours of sleep. Sometimes a long distance bus is dependent on just one driver. In this way, overwork is a major reason for accidents.

Why are accidents not stopping?

The way people are losing their lives in bus accidents every day, it is natural to raise questions on long distance bus service. Should long distance private buses be banned? By the way, ban is not the solution to any problem. If these buses follow traffic rules, then lives will not be lost in accidents. But these buses are running on the roads in an arbitrary and dangerous manner. Neither there is concern for the rules nor concern for the safety of the passengers. If this is happening, then somewhere, corruption or administrative negligence is responsible for this. The responsible people are turning a blind eye to whether the buses are following the traffic rules or not. There is some negligence in this and to some extent corruption is also responsible. It is an open secret that bus owners take bribes from various places to run the buses arbitrarily on the road. Due to this, no action is taken against them.