Karnataka - Bangalore

An initiative to prevent accidents

Special Correspondent

BANGALORE: Many of us who have seen the movie Speed would have been left wondering what would the outcome be if a bus full of passengers really goes out of control. Closer home, buses do get involved in accidents but not of the movie scale.

Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP), which is involved with the Bangalore police in its Safe Roads to School initiative, is also allied with the International Road Transport Union (IRTU) headquartered in Geneva.

One of the handbooks prepared by the IRU, Coach Crisis Management System: Coping With a Serious Bus Crash, is to help coach operators and associations in different countries to work together in the event of a crash involving a bus full of passengers.

With the number of private tourist coach operators in cities such as Bangalore increasing, this aspect of road safety assumes importance. While most tourist coaches run on fixed routes, others are used for package tours and carry tourists from other States and even overseas. How well equipped the drivers and crew members of such buses are to cope with a serious accident is what the IRU handbook attempts to look at.

The organisation has also prepared safety and checklists for coach, truck and taxi drivers for better journey management. The Swedish automobile manufacturer, Volvo, whose plant is located close to the city, has its own training school for bus and truck drivers where safety is given priority. Volvo feels this necessary as its heavy vehicles have engines which are more powerful than most others on Indian roads, and also have more sophisticated control systems. The company claims high safety record among drivers trained by it.

The IRTU-GRSP partnership is global in its reach and countries such as India stand to benefit from it. In all its road safety activities, the IRU focuses on the human element, which is considered the key to road safety. The Bangalore police have also noted that close to one third of all road accidents are caused by the human factor, usually negligence of safety precautions such as not overtaking from the wrong side.

Another aspect of the IRU's activities is related to the transport of hazardous goods. Two years ago, when a petrol tanker overturned on Mysore Road, partly spilling its contents, it caused panic in the area.

Fortunately, the police and fire service personnel managed to cordon off the area and stop the spillage and prevented a serious accident.

The IRU Academy trains drivers of vehicles transporting potentially dangerous material.

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