The latest tragedy involving an express buss and several cars on the north south express highway near simpang ampat is prompting me to write this.
I am writing this not based on the particular tragedy but in general referring to all similar tragedy that happened in the past.
Okay we all know there is always going to be some express bus drivers that will do same mistake and get involved in a crash. I belief the majority of bus drivers are responsible lots who have families of their own that they are not willing to jeopardize by driving recklessly. Why on earth we cant put a clamp on them?. What is the problem?. How much longer can we tolerate to seeing such blatant loss of life due to unscrupulous drivers, faulty bus, lack of enforcement, irresponsible bus operators, etc?.
Most often we hear from victims that survived a crash that the bus was speeding or being driven dangerously. Why not have numbers displayed in the interior ( and exterior) of the buss together with a specific code number unique to the bus so that passengers that feel uncomfortable with the way the driver is driving ( tailgating other cars, overtaking without signal to many times, zig zagging, speeding dangerously, speeding in the overtaking lane, talking in the hand phone, look tired and sleepy as he drives) give an opportunity for the passenger to sms to the traffic center and have an immediate response from the traffic police or which ever authorities that can respond to a distress call and book the driver immediately?
Why not make use of many existing technologies or that needs little modifications to have a control system in place , such as an automatic detection of speed that alert the security centers and notify traffic controllers to swung into action to stops dangerously driven buss?.
Give an opportunity to passengers to rate the driver after each trip and have to sent to the relevant authorities for evaluation.
All busses must go though stringent assessment of its road worthiness. This system need to be reviewed if it is deemed not sufficient. Even if all this means higher cost of maintenance be it.
It is high time to look into the remuneration of passenger express bus drivers. Look into the mind of the drivers. What is their back ground? Why are they tempted to speed. Why are they rushing? Is speeding correlated with their income? This is serious matter. Look into this. There should not be a direct correlation between speed and income of buss driver.
If nothing is done, now. Nothing is changed for the better now. Do u think this is the last ?
