ON June 16, a photograph of a bus which skidded off a bridge and plunged into a dry riverbed was carried by various newspapers. Forty innocent people lost their lives for no reason. Government sources put down the incident to reckless driving and the authorities concerned termed it a traffic accident. Files were closed and life moved on.
It has now become our national trait to indifferently look at dead bodies and take gory incidents in our stride. There is no deep thinking or research involved to unearth the causes of such uncalled-for accidents, leave alone suggesting any remedies. Neither the government nor any kind of thinktank seems to care about such happenings. Public safety appears to be at the bottom of their priority list, hence no interest is taken in such issues.
In Karachi there used to be one such killer bridge. Since the construction of this bridge in the ‘50s many buses, wagons and cars skidded off it and fell into a dry riverbed, killing a number of people and paralyzing scores of others. It is, however, no more a deadly bridge because of the safety measures that were taken by the then government. We now know the structure as the Malir Bridge.
In the developed countries (even in the Middle East and the Far East) it is not possible for such accidents to take place. Public safety is number one priority in all such countries. Unfortunately, in our homeland, despite our leaders’ claims that they give top most priority to our national interest, no step to ensure such safety has so far been taken.
A careful examination of the photograph would reveal that the bus fell off the bridge after ramming into and breaking the concrete guard posts. Since public safety is not of prime importance, our engineers may not have cared to look at the photograph printed in the newspapers. The Pakistan Engineering Council, the Institution of Engineers Pakistan and the Pakistan Engineering Congress have, to date, remained silent on the issue.
One feels that the designer of the project is responsible for the sad incident. While designing these guard posts he did not follow the principles of public safety, according to which such posts must not be designed on the bridges.
The only permissible structure which can act as a barrier on the bridges is the ‘New Jersey Barrier’. The designer of the concrete guard posts which broke easily when the bus rammed into it was incompetent and his incompetence caused 40 innocent people to die. Unfortunately our government agencies such as the National Highway Authority, City District governments and the Communication and Works Department patronize such designers and support them.
The designers who are aware of public safety standards are kept away from these bodies and the mafia ring of incompetent officials is never broken, endangering countless human lives.
As a standard public safety practice the walkway (footpaths) on either side of the bridge should be 30cm higher than the road level on the bridge. If this was done, it would have served as a deterrence and made impossible for the unfortunate bus to climb onto the footpath. The second barrier would have been the reinforced concrete New Jersey Barrier. This two-tier safety structure could have prevented the accident.
The killer bridge in Karachi, the Malir Bridge, was made safe by taking the above-mentioned steps, and modifications were carried out on the structure of the bridge after 30 years to construct an RCC New Jersey Barrier on its either side. Unfortunately the walkway was not made 30cm high, making the New Jersey Barrier prone to failure in case of a powerful impact from a loaded trailer travelling at a high speed. Still, enough safety measures were taken for passengers using public transport.
In Karachi there are still a number of bridges, such as the ICI Bridge, which are examples of the incompetence of their designers, and therefore are susceptible to accidents. The Shaheed-i-Millat Expressway where such concrete guard posts have been installed is another infrastructure devoid of any public safety measures.
All over Pakistan, bridges with concrete guard posts act as deathtraps for the innocent passengers travelling on vehicles passing through them. It’s time our government did something to prevent such uncalled-for incidents.
ON June 16, a photograph of a bus which skidded off a bridge and plunged into a dry riverbed was carried by various newspapers. Forty innocent people lost their lives for no reason. Government sources put down the incident to reckless driving and the authorities concerned termed it a traffic accident. Files were closed and life moved on.
