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Speeding buses claim yet another life
Increasing incidents of bus drivers racing each other to collect more passengers or reach their destinations faster have claimed many lives. On Tuesday (18) yet another accident claimed the life of a mother of two, close to the pedestrian crossing at the Kollupitiya junction on Galle Road.
Come what may: Two buses race each other. Pic by Indika Handuwala
The victim, Priyadarshani Gunawardena (48), was on her way to her workplace, a bank in Kollupitiya, when the fatal accident occurred. “I drop my wife half way of the distance and from there she takes a bus or trishaw to work. I did the same that day. When I was in office I got a call from home to say that my wife had met with an accident and had been taken to the Colombo National Hospital,” Ananda Gunawardena the victim’s husband said. What he didn’t know was that she was already dead.
Mr. Gunawardena said that the police informed him that the bus in which she was travelling was racing with another. “She usually gets off at the Kollupitiya junction bus stop. She must have been on the footboard waiting to get off, but instead she was thrown out of the speeding bus and the other bus that was right behind and was also travelling at a high speed had run over her.
The coroner’s verdict states Priyadarshini had died of cerebral injuries. The accused and eyewitnesses have been summoned to be present in court on July 2. “My wife’s death is not the first nor will it be the last. I don’t blame the drivers but the government for her death because they are responsible for the reasons that the buses race each other. The system is such that the people who violate the law are not punished,” Mr. Gunawardena charged.Private Bus Owners’ Association president Gemunu Wijeratne said there was a lot of competition between bus drivers because there wasn’t a proper timetable in place.
“The buses are regulated by the National Transportation Commission (NTC) or provincial authorities. However both these bodies have failed to provide us with time tables. We have gone to courts regarding this and the Supreme Court has ordered them to formulate time tables. Even though the order was given five years ago no one has looked into the matter,” he said.
However he believes that an awareness programme on fatal accidents that has been conducted for the past 10 years has brought down the number of accidents by 50%.”We believe that time tables will further reduce this number.” Meanwhile NTC Chairman Roshan Gunawardena, said although there are 23,000 registered private buses only 3,600 come under the NTC which makes it hard for the commission to monitor them.
“The other buses come under provincial authorities. The NTC has taken measures to regulate the buses that come under us. If an accident takes place we temporally cancel the licence given to them by the commission and launch an investigation into the incident,” he said.
Mr. Gunawardena said that if the provincial authorities were more responsible accidents could be minimised. On May 17, in a similar accident involving 2 speeding buses, one bus crashed into a bus halt in front of the Thalagama Base hospital killing two people and injuring three including a child. According to eye witnesses the bus crashed when the driver trying to overtake another bus lost control.
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