When 70-year-old Ganapathy stepped into a bus terminus on Monday morning, little could he have realised that he may not be able to do so again for a long time. Around 11 a.m., a Metropolitan Transport Corporation bus ran over him right inside the T. Nagar bus terminus. He swerved at the last moment and managed to survive, but is fighting to save his legs. Currently undergoing treatment at the Government General Hospital, he said: “I was just waiting for a bus. The terminus was very crowded and the bus came out of nowhere.”
Mr. Ganapathy will end up as just another statistic as stories like his are all too common. In 2011, over 2,800 accidents involving MTC buses occurred on the city's roads. About 10 per cent of all those who died due to a road accident last year did so under the wheels of an MTC bus.
Though fatal accidents involving MTC buses have hovered between 120 and 140 over the past few years, the overall accident numbers (which includes non-fatal) have been steadily creeping up.
Motorists such as Raja Marthandam say that MTC has done little over the years to address issues of rash driving and flagrant traffic violations by its drivers.
“Many of the buses take very sharp turns without using the indicator. They behave like they own the road and literally threaten other road users.”
Senior MTC officials say that as the MTC fleet covers over 10 lakh km each day, some accidents are just “inevitable.” But the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation, which operates twice the number of buses and clocks over 12 lakh km a day, is responsible for fewer number of accidents each year – about 100 fatal accidents were recorded in 2011.
Another argument is that no other segment of drivers spends more than eight hours behind the wheel continuously in city traffic every day.
It is impossible to be accident-free under such stressful environments, say officials. But within the MTC itself, 4,144 drivers out of the total 7,959 are accident-free. Clearly, some of the drivers are able to avoid accidents.
S.A. Vijayakumar, former head of various State-run bus corporations, says that accident mitigation is not being addressed in a professional manner.
“All that is recorded is whether the driver was at fault or not. But the real question is: was it avoidable or unavoidable? Repeat offenders are also just sent for some training, the effectiveness of which is never scientifically verified.”
Set an example
As the single largest road user, MTC should definitely set an example, he says. “But the corporation has never really thought of institutional ways to help improve driver behaviour. Revenue collection seems to be the primary goal,” he adds.
With the number of accidents piling up each year, it has also become a major financial liability.
MTC owes over Rs.31 crore in accident compensation alone. Most of the victims are never paid. Besides, owing to its bad track record, no insurance company has come forward to provide accident cover.
The accident numbers also reflect a larger problem. And that is the MTC's definition of its organisational goals and purpose.
Drivers such as P. Bhagawanth, who has 30 years of experience, say that the braking efficiency of most buses is kept around 35-40 per cent, against a requirement of 70 per cent. This is done to improve the mileage.
A few litres of diesel may be saved each day and the average fleet kmph will show an improvement in the annual reports, but reduction in braking power could have a significant impact in the moments before an accident.
V.Thamizh Arasan, Head of Transportation Engineering Division, IIT-Madras, says, “It is ironic, but if drivers are made to drive safely, MTC might actually lose revenue. The operational parameters on which its performance is judged has to change. Efficiency cannot be quantified purely in terms of revenue generation. Unless public transport is looked at as a social responsibility, things may not improve.”
