Pity the poor public
By H. Kishie Singh

NOTHING made me happier than the Prime Minister announcing that a four-lane highway was to be built from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Mumbai to Calcutta, linking the country from end to end. Alas, I don’t think I’ll live to see it. I’ll be happy to see NH 1 completed, just the 200-km stretch from Ambala to Delhi, that has taken about 20 years.

It’s a simple matter to get from point A to B, if you have your own vehicle. But the drive is fraught with danger — incompleted bridges, pot holes, barriers without warning that materialise out of the fog, building material lying on the road, the diversity of traffic, from pedestrians to animal-drawn carts, herds of animals, tractor trailers et al. Indian roads have every type of vehicle known to man plying on them.

All this make our roads extremely unsafe. The driver and passengers of the new breed of cars have some measures of safety — given crumple zones, side impact protection beams, seat belts and more.

But pity the poor public transport-user. Our buses and trucks are in the most pathetic state. Not a thought is given to the passengers. To begin with, bus shells are just that, a shell built on the chassis. The new engine, strong chassis, brakes, shock absorbers, good tyres last only a short time. The bus body is usually put together by a carpenter-turned-builder sitting on the side of the road under a tree. There is no structural strength to the body, no scientific basis of construction. In cases of a collision the occupants are thrown about, the sheet metal rips and causes more damage to the occupants. If the bus is a few years old, it just disintegrates. Thanks to the lack of maintenance, the sheet metal is rusted, as is the chassis. Many times in a bus I have seen the ground whizzing by through holes in the rusted floor boards. The body is ready to come apart.

Just because we are a Third World country does not mean we can kill people. Road accidents claim a horrifying a 60,000 lives a year.

A good look at a public transport bus will show that most windows are missing. Come summer or winter, rain or shine, the passengers are exposed to the elements. Zero comfort, zero safety. The driver’s wind screen may be cracked, dangerously affecting visibility. Chances are there is no wind screen wiper. From the rear, shock absorbers can be seen hanging loose, the operators depend on the weight of the passengers to hold the bus down and the tyres are retreaded for the umpteenth time — bald, canvas showing. In case of severe braking on a wet road, the tyres will fail. As mentioned many times, the only contact a vehicle has with mother earth is the tyre. If the tyre is no good, that vital link is broken and the result is no road holding properties. Not while braking or going around a corner or even in a straight line on dry tarmac.

If a visual glance shows all this, the brakes will definitely be suspect. All this points to a complete lack of maintenance and a callous attitude towards the public which uses the transport plus other road-users who are in as much danger from these man-made disasters.

Then there is the attitude of the drivers. Tally Ho! Me hearties and the devil take the hind most! The most undisciplined, reckless, rude and rough drivers get to be drivers of government buses. Truck drivers by comparison, who own their vehicles, are a lot more considerate, if not polite. Trucks are also a lot safer.

According to the Motor Vehicles Act, a public transport vehicle must have a certificate of road worthiness. None of the vehicles one sees, unless it is brand new, will pass this certification. These buses are death traps.

And you know what? You have the exclusive privilege of paying money, buying a ticket and riding a death trap.

Happy Motoring!