ON Sept 5, a TV channel aired a detailed footage of a road accident in Karachi. The accident took place on the day of Eid.

In the accident, one of the two heavily loaded racing buses rammed a rickshaw and two motorcycles from behind at a red traffic signal and then hit a car.

The accident claimed three lives -– one motorcyclist, the pillion-riding woman and a rickshaw passenger. The footage clearly showed the bus driver and the conductor fleeing comfortably leaving the bus behind after the accident and also showed the motorcyclist and the woman pillion rider crushed to death under the front and rear wheels of the bus.

The scene was the most horrible, painful and anguishing I had ever witnessed. The other bus driver was also shown in the footage. He was quite calm, seated at the driving seat after the accident and saying he had nothing to do with the accident as the victims were not hit by his vehicle. It appeared that for him making a race of public transport vehicles on city roads was not at all unlawful.

Such accidents and drivers’ behaviour are common and on the rise in Karachi.

There are two simple suggestions to avoid such accidents in the first place and avoid the chances of escape of the perpetrating drivers if an accident does take place.

Only special purpose public transport buses which can run at a maximum speed of 50km an hour should be allowed on roads; and there must not be a separate and easy entry exit gate for the bus driver in a bus so that he may remain conscious of his own fate and public wrath while driving the bus.

RAIHAN A. K. LODHI
Karachi