Red Volvos - The new speed demons in town
Just about 2 days ago, I was telling my wife that I was not too comfortable seeing those Red BMTC Volvo's being driven at neck breaking speeds. The one I had seen on Airport Road that day was being driven at least at 70 - 80 km/h and the driver had his hand firmly on the horn to keep the people and vehicles on the road away from the speeding demon.
Yesterday, disaster struck. One of the Red Volvo's ploughed into the HAL Bus Stop on Airport Road killing 3 people on the spot and injuring another 20. Most of the news channels and papers stated that the driver lost control of the bus. Obviously, he would. If one was to drive a bus which has a laden weight of at least 10 tonnes with say 20 people in it and driving at 70 km/h, you cannot solely rely on the braking power to get the unleashed momentum under control if a pedestrian or another vehicle was to come in the way of the bus. The bus (costing over Rs. 75 Lakhs) was burnt by an irate mob and also a couple of other vehicles were burnt, the entire situation leading to a huge traffic chaos which lasted for about 3 hours.
On one hand, you may want to blame the Bangalore Traffic Police for completely losing control over the traffic situation in Bangalore where it is now so common to see a public transport vehicle or a call centre cab being driven at speeds which are definitely no where close to being termed as 'safe', the same set of vehicles with their high beam 'on' during the nights. A few months ago..I was caught by a cop for driving with the high beam 'on'. I informed the cop that what he was referring to as high beam was actually fog lights..He consulted his senior (who agreed with me) before letting me off. Today, you actually get to see so many people driving with the high beams and there is no one to catch them on the road.
On the other hand, you have BMTC. Did they not install any governors or any speed controlling mechanism in the bus? Or, if it was actually a case of "brake failing" which the driver seems to have shouted loud before fleeing from the scene of the accident, Did BMTC not do any of those regular checks on the bus? If the latter actually happens to be the case, it really makes me wonder at times - Was it really a safe decision for Lalu to do away with the regular maintenance of the railway engines and coaches and instead opt for a distance based servicing mechanism?
Yesterday, disaster struck. One of the Red Volvo's ploughed into the HAL Bus Stop on Airport Road killing 3 people on the spot and injuring another 20. Most of the news channels and papers stated that the driver lost control of the bus. Obviously, he would. If one was to drive a bus which has a laden weight of at least 10 tonnes with say 20 people in it and driving at 70 km/h, you cannot solely rely on the braking power to get the unleashed momentum under control if a pedestrian or another vehicle was to come in the way of the bus. The bus (costing over Rs. 75 Lakhs) was burnt by an irate mob and also a couple of other vehicles were burnt, the entire situation leading to a huge traffic chaos which lasted for about 3 hours.
On one hand, you may want to blame the Bangalore Traffic Police for completely losing control over the traffic situation in Bangalore where it is now so common to see a public transport vehicle or a call centre cab being driven at speeds which are definitely no where close to being termed as 'safe', the same set of vehicles with their high beam 'on' during the nights. A few months ago..I was caught by a cop for driving with the high beam 'on'. I informed the cop that what he was referring to as high beam was actually fog lights..He consulted his senior (who agreed with me) before letting me off. Today, you actually get to see so many people driving with the high beams and there is no one to catch them on the road.
On the other hand, you have BMTC. Did they not install any governors or any speed controlling mechanism in the bus? Or, if it was actually a case of "brake failing" which the driver seems to have shouted loud before fleeing from the scene of the accident, Did BMTC not do any of those regular checks on the bus? If the latter actually happens to be the case, it really makes me wonder at times - Was it really a safe decision for Lalu to do away with the regular maintenance of the railway engines and coaches and instead opt for a distance based servicing mechanism?
posted by Arjun Narayan at
11:28 AM
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