KARACHI: Reckless driving by drivers of public transport everyday claims several precious lives in this megacity. Not a single day passes without deaths on the roads, leaving families with grief, shock and without their bread- winners. Only those with hearts of stone can remain unmoved by these regular tragedies. But remain unmoved those who are supposed to enforce traffic laws. Just a bit of empathy is required to prevent this daily loss of precious human lives. Opprobrium has no effect, however.

Those who watch the gory drama of death grieve over it, some of them see with disgust those who dismiss it with a shrug of shoulders as a daily routine or a necessary evil. Some do feel the need to stem the rot, but they feel helpless, themselves waiting to fall victim to rashly-driven vehicles on the roads.

The merchants of death are known as drivers of public buses in this megacity. Death is a meaningless word for them, whether of others or of their own, for many of the victims of reckless driving are bus-drivers and conductors themselves.

The kith and kin of the victims bear the scars of tragedy on their minds forever.

A collision between a minibus and a train in Landhi left more than 30 people dead and several others injured. It was one of the worst accidents in the city. Children who had witnessed the horrifying scene could not properly sleep at night for weeks.

A small girl who had gone for shopping with her mother on the eve of Eid was run over by a bus near a traffic intersection in Chakiwara. She died before she could be taken to a hospital. Her mother wailed with the shopping boxes lying scattered around her. The mother could not bear the tragedy and became insane.

A man, from the labourer class, had gone to Civil Hospital to have his wife admitted there. But before going back to his home, he went to the mortuary to see it. On his way back he boarded a bus near Jama Cloth Market and was travelling on a footboard when a water tanker hit him. He died on the spot.

A man was travelling on a footboard of a bus on M. A. Jinnah Road. Near Dow Medical College his sandals fell from the footboard. As he ran off the footboard, he was run over by a bus and died on the spot. The poor man lost his life for the sake of a pair of sandals.

Bus-drivers are also in the habit of parking their vehicles in the middle of road. This way they block roads make it difficult for other vehicles, both private and public, to make their way. Ironically, it all happens under the nose of law.

A rickshaw-driver, who appeared to be under the influence of a drug, hit against the car of a VIP. Those who were on security duty went to the VIP. The rickshaw-driver disappeared. Police launched a search for the rickshaw-driver, but they failed to find him. Finally, police picked up another rickshaw-driver at his house and booked him and disappeared from the City Courts, leaving the poor rickshaw-driver to his fate.