I have always wondered why nothing has been done about commercial passenger(or goods) carrying vehicles with regard to serious accidents and the reckless practices they indulge in.
These questions came up in my mind subsequent to 2 trips to Bangalore during which the ride to/from the airport was the scariest. Based on my 2 experiences i bgan to investigate; and just googling around tells a horrendous story -
- http://www.hindu.com/2010/11/13/stories/2010111364790300.htm
- http://www.deccanherald.com/content/22189/ipl-2012.html
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XbgL2vCeL8
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoeQVVW8rTA
- http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/RestOfAsia/President-expresses-grief-over-bus-accident-in-Karnataka/Article1-551018.aspx
- www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=136736
- http://www.demotix.com/news/970811/bus-and-truck-involved-fatal-accident-karnataka#media-970760 (this one is shocking and obviously the speeds involved seem to be very high judging by the wreckage)
- http://www.hindu.com/2009/05/22/stories/2009052250190100.htm
- http://allaboutbelgaum.com/news/five-infosys-employees-killed-in-accident-at-sankeshwar/ ((photos here)
What shocks me is the callous attitude of the society as a whole and the government in particular. Why is nobody acting?
Here are the questions coming up in my mind
- When any of the above accidents happen why isn't an investigative authority taking the lead and conducting a compreshensive investigation? In the US for example, NTSB kicks in and does a detailed investigation and and accident report is produced - http://www.ntsb.gov/inves...
- Secondly, me as a consumer, i don't have ANY information whatsoever about the safety record or accident history of a cab company or bus company before i book a ride on it. I think legisltation is needed to change that and force every company to publish this (KSRTC, Meru etc.)
- Why can't the business model of taxi cabs be changed? I was speaking to an taxi driver who drove me around bangalore and he explained how drivers find it difficult to make ends meet because they have to pay off the car loan in case they buy the car outright or a fixed % to the person whom they lease it from. As a consequence of this they try to hurry and squeeze in the maximum possible rides even if it meant to drive rash at reckless speeds endangering everyone involved. In this, the poor passengers are short changed with their lives in danger.
- In this day and age of technology why can't we maintain a national database of commercial drivers whose details are maintained along with their biometrics. This way subsequent to a major accident the driver can be suspended pending an enquiry and if found to be responsible for gross negligence (drunk driving, reckless driving etc.) the driver can be suspended for life and it cane be made sure via the national registry that he cannot become a commercial driver again. Of course for this to work all commericial passenger/goods carrying companies have to be forced to run a check against this database before hiring drivers
I am sure many praja readers would have many other questions springing up in thier mind, so feel free to add to this list of questions & suggestions.
As a side note, interestingly karnataka figures in the top 5 in road accidents per page 9 of this report http://morth.nic.in/writereaddata/mainlinkFile/File761.pdf
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mods please help formatting
mods i have tried multiple times to format the above text. For some reason it appears good when i format it it, but when i save it, the formatting gets messed up and everything appears as a continous line. your help formatting the above post into separate lines and paragraphs will be appreciated.
@ blrpraj - formatting done!
blrpraj,
Per your request, post is now updated with the formatting. In future if you find issues in formatting, my sugegstion is copy it to notepad so that all the line breaks are removed if there are any. Then cut and paste to Praja post.
-Syed
thanks
Thanks syed. Appreciate your help. I will remember your tip in future.
Everyone resonates with your feeling but
Everyone feels the same, but the solutions that you have mentioned are not an immediate solution and takes lot of time for implementation in a country like ours. I think government cannot spend so much money on this project. It requires a software database, RTO employees who can manage the database, and regular upgradations to technology etc.. But with aadhar card, there is some hope as they can use the biometric data of it and map ito users license. But still implementation of these ideas take long time because of beaurocracy.
Meru cabs has automatic speed limit detection and it alerts the passenger and Driver whenever it is violated.
Also, I think government has mandated some speed limit regulations for heavy vehicles and RTO officials check them occasionally, but the enforcement may not be good enough.
To check rash driving and take action, we dont have enough police force. So, I think these badly damaged accident vehicles should be displayed in various parts of city at important junctions to alert/make people catious while driving.
Also, There can be helpline to register rash driving cases against a vehicle and if more than a certain limit of cases are recorded against a particular vehicle, they should sieze the vehicle. Auto/cab unions may cry/organize bandhs and get these rules bent.