Get killer bus drivers off the roads now

In Sri Lanka, it takes a tragedy for Government authorities to wake up and realise all that’s wrong with the country’s public transport system. This time it took the deaths of 10 passengers who met an untimely end when the bus they were travelling in went off a bridge at Manampitiya and plunged into the water last Sunday night. Since then, it has emerged that the bus did not have a route permit to operate a bus service and the driver who survived the accident is a repeat offender, being fined several times for reckless driving. 

Police say they are testing to find out if the driver was under the influence of alcohol or had used any other kind of narcotic drug on the day of the accident; information which will be of little comfort to the families who have lost their loved ones.

As is the usual case, the Police, National Transport Commission (NTC) officials, politicians in the area, etc. are waking up to the serious lapses which left room for a reckless driver to get behind the wheel and cause the deaths of 10 people and cause injuries to scores of others. 

The public bus transport system in Sri Lanka is another example of how rampant corruption impacts the lives of people. Private bus operators carry over 70% of bus passengers while the rest depend on the State-run Sri Lanka Transport Board. Corruption in the public road transport system is not entirely new but the privatisation of the SLTB/CTB in the 1980s opened the door for the creation of a new breed of “bus mudalalis”, almost all with political connections to join a system that would enrich them by becoming a money mechanism more than a public service that has the safety and wellbeing of passengers in mind.

In the decades since then, corruption in the system has worsened with allegations that most private bus operators are proxies of politicians, police officials and others who yield enough power to break the rules and go scot free.

The National Transport Commission established in 1991 is entrusted with ensuring a holistic omnibus transport system for the country and is entrusted with issuing route permits, checking fitness of vehicles used for passenger transport, etc. There is little transparency in the issuing of route permits with those with political patronage given lucrative routes while others have to satisfy themselves with crumbs. There is little scrutiny of those hired as drivers and those who get behind the wheel often lack discipline, are unaware of the immense responsibility that goes with their job and show little courtesy to passengers. 

The private bus operations are run for profits while the wellbeing of passengers is given scant regard as can be seen by the number of accidents involving them. It is not only passengers who fall victim to reckless drivers who are busy racing to meet daily income targets but also pedestrians and other road users. There have been instances where drivers who have been involved in fatal accidents were re-employed with the NTC and the Police unaware or unconcerned that the road killers are back. The Manampitiya accident is a good example of how a driver who was repeatedly fined for reckless driving continued to be employed and was finally allowed to drive many innocents to their deaths.

This tragedy will be another forgotten episode in a few weeks and given the corruption in the system, the bus owner will continue to operate on the same route with no hindrance. In a few days this attention will shift elsewhere as a new tragedy unfolds with no meaningful measures taken to prevent such incidents in the future. Corrupt officials, policemen and bus owners ably assisted by private bus union leaders will continue to fatten their purses with ill-gotten wealth as more innocents lose their lives and families get shattered by the loss of their loved ones.