Salam
Recently we were shocked with the massacre from accident at the North South Expressway.Walk down the decade we still can found various cases related to express buses.They aren't just hitting the barrier or colliding to each other but in the same time threaten and harm the other road users.Once, to take a ride on a bus also give me a chill.It made me think twice whether to ride a bus or go for other public transport.Since that I do not posses a vehicle,bus still provide the widest coverage of destination with sometimes not so reasonable price and irrelevant departure and arrival time.
My last long trip with a bus was to Kedah more than a year back.Today I only willing to travel by express bus either by Mara Liner or Transnasional. ^ years back I do travel using buses under Cepat Ekspress and Sutera.Somehow I often found that my trip that should me 8 hours or more to be cut short to 4 or maximum 6 hours.With an hour spend at unofficial RnR stop the trip should not be that short.However at night they were the king of the road.None of the law enforcer were there from midnight to early morning.
As far as I concern my company of choice do obey to regulation of using two drivers for long distance trip.A single drive might not make it if they need to travel triple times a day with a space of 4-6 hours.People always talked about the stories driver taking all this illegal substance to keep on driving all night long.However they aren't the one should be blame.They were trying to keep up with this demanding living cost.Their pay check doesn't allow them to took too much time away or else they might find themselves being pinned by some parties of money lenders for the sake of their family.
Still need some parties to be blame then we have two options.The governing body and the company itself.There's sticker at each heavy vehicle regarding to the speed limit and yet they aren't always restricted by the law.Why this is happen?First it is the attitude of the driver and second there is less law enforcer on the road ready to hit the company hard.Often being hit was the driver.Governing body should spend more time on the road, regular monitor on driver condition and how they were driving.Hit hard the company for their negligence.Black box are useless and yet the company will keep on running their services because the driver will be blame.
Pointing finger to the company is the other option.What they had done wrong?First they might not scheduling 2 driver for the trip that deserve two.Seconds they aren't monitoring their driver very well in term of attitude on the road while driving.Third they are less concern regarding to their driver health conditions whether they are fit enough to make the trip.People who often travelling by bus will find that drivers usually a heavy smoker.After years making the trip is it possible they were still in the same condition with rarely sufficient amount of rest.I don't think so.They are facing possibility of various health problem as a result of excessive smoking and inconsistent rest.It should be a must for the driver to take regular health check to ensure they are in a pink of health.
Annually, accident involving buses are taking more than dozen of lives in Malaysia alone.With all the attitude and enforcement of law issues, the number might be on a rise year after year from today.Significant improvement required from the responsible parties in order to ensure that it does not reach a point where people lost the confidence in public transport.we were losing a lot of human capital in each lives that is taken from the incident.Hope the inquiry for the latest cases will come out as a led to a better future in public transport industry.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010