Bus accidents are increasingly becoming regular events in the country, as evidenced in 2017, when as many as 29 people were killed daily in accidents involving buses, with Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, and Kerala topping the list. Almost 86 per cent of those killed were bus passengers, according to government data.
In the past three years, buses continued to fall into narrow valleys in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Maharashtra in spite of installation of crash barriers at many places, as claimed by the government. Official data shows that 10,651 people were killed in road accident in 2017, with a similar trend seen in the last three years. Even on July 9, 2019, a bus accident on the Yamuna Expressway snatched away 29 precious human lives following a momentary loss of concentration on the part of the driver, who had dozed off. After the driver fell asleep while driving, the bus jumped off the flyover railing, leaving 29 persons dead and many others injured.
It may be worth mentioning that 1,612 persons lost their lives in bus accidents in UP alone in 2018. Though overspeeding is ranked as the primary killer in road accidents, driving of heavy vehicles at more than 120 km per hour has become the norm on the expressway.
There are a number of reasons for such mishaps on the roads. These include sharp bends, presence of potholes and boulders, lack of signage, poor enforcement measures, inadequate street lighting, absence of traffic calming, and excessive hours of driving. Besides these, the major killer is driving at high speed, followed by fatigue of the bus drivers.
In European countries, a bus driver does not drive for more than nine hours. Supported by intermittent rest, that can be extended to 10 hours twice a week, with a maximum of 56 hours in a week or 90 hours in any two consecutive weeks.
The law also stipulates that before driving a bus the driver should have had adequate hours of sleep. I know of an instance in the United States when a bus driver simply refused to drive as he had not got adequate sleep the previous night.
It is absolutely clear that the most important part of a moving truck or bus is the driver, who needs to get plenty of rest before getting behind the wheel. He also needs to eat well and stay fit. The driver always remembers that Hours of Service (HOS) violations can threaten his livelihood or even his life. It is, therefore, advised that the driver stay healthy and well-rested or he does not drive.
The driver also has to bear in mind that he needs to inspect his vehicle before each trip and he also needs to check his brakes regularly. The driver should ensure that he develops his skills and learns how to inspect the brakes and identify safety defects so that he can get them repaired before risking his life and that of others on the highway. The purpose of the Hours of Service (HOS) is to reduce accidents caused by driver fatigue. According to a number of studies, the number of hours spent driving bears a strong correlation to the number of fatigue-related accidents.
The risk of fatigue or likelihood of falling sleep is highest between the hours of midnight and six in the morning, and increases with the total length of the driver’s trip, according to the Federal Register 65 (85): 25541–25611, USA. In our country, it would be advisable to drive for no more than eight hours a day, with breaks of at least 15 minutes every two hours. For driving in hilly terrain, even driving for eight hours needs examination. The time has come to make it mandatory to use power steering while driving on hilly terrain.