Alleging lack of system in the State responsible for the increasing number of accidents by school buses in the city, traffic officials have strongly recommended installation of speed governing mechanism to check the killer buses in the city.
The bus owners, on the other hand, called it impossible and sought for a common uniform system for all the vehicles plying in the city to check accidents. A couple on a two-wheeler was hit by a school bus killing the lady sitting on the back side while the husband was seriously injured at Kokar on Monday. Similarly, several people, including students while going to their schools on their own or with their parents have been killed by those killer buses in the last few years.
Traffic SP Rajiv Ranjan suggested a way out to check the speeding school buses. “As there is no system to control a speeding bus while it is moving on the road, speed governing mechanism is the only way out to check the increasing number of accidents in the city,” said the Traffic SP. If the vehicle does not cross the limit, there are very rare chances of an accident, he added.
“The mechanism will not allow the bus to go beyond a certain speed limit say, 30 km per hour, which itself is a measure to check accidents inside the city,” he added. According to Ranjan, once the speed is controlled, there are several other ways to tame the drivers by regular checking. “It will be further ensured that driver is not alcoholic, he is good h health and he has minimum of five years of experience,” he said.
“A special drive was launched last week where at least 12 school buses were checked and actions were taken against those who did not fulfil the parameters,” said the Traffic SP. Traffic however, said that a proper system is needed to implement all these measures and role of every department must be properly defined; we can only enforce the rules made by the government, said Ranjan.
Bus owners, on the other hand, maintained that it will not be practically feasible to install such a device only in the school buses and a common uniform system for all the vehicles which are plying on the roads. “I don’t think that it is practically feasible for them to install such a mechanism. The district administration should first pull out the 15-year old school buses out of the roads as older buses are one of the reasons behind the increasing number of accidents,” said Bus Owners’ Association president Uday Shankar Ojha.
“Whatever system the administration wants to implement, should be uniform and applicable to all the vehicles plying on the roads,” said Ojha. Ojha also alleged that there are several buses of different factories and industries, which are venturing in the city in the name of school buses or school bus itself is doing double shift ferrying the employees of various business houses. The pressure of catching both the shifts is responsible for the increasing accidents in the city.
“Those buses which are plying freely in the no entry zones in the name of School buses should also be checked,” he said. Remarkably, maximum number of accidents takes place in the morning between 7am - 8 am when the drivers of those buses are under intense pressure of catching school as well as timing at the bus stops while the duty of traffic constables start at 8:00 am in the morning. Most of the accidents in the last few years have taken place due to rash driving and over-speeding by the bus drivers.