Cops blame errant bus drivers, careless citizens for mishaps in Jaipur

JAIPUR: The menace of low-floor buses continues unabated in the city, with untrained drivers turning the buses into killer machines. The traffic police claims it has been penalising the drivers of these buses to rein in the number of accidents in the city, but with regular instances of mishaps involving low-floor and government buses, the effect is yet to be visible.
“In majority of the accidents, it is the mistake of the drivers. The bus drivers are locked in stiff competition to get maximum number of passengers on board. Therefore, they are in a rush to reach the bus stops before other buses and pack as many passengers as they can. Rash driving is one of the reasons for the accidents,” said a police official.

Traffic department also claimed that they are focused on curbing rash driving and have penalised many such drivers. Rahul Prakash, DCP traffic told TOI, “The drivers of these buses are not trained properly and often drive without paying heed to other vehicles. They break signals and also block traffic. I have instructed the traffic personnel to catch all the bus drivers violating traffic norms as well as to penalise as many as possible. We have been running campaigns to curb such violations. However, at times it is also the fault of the two-wheeler riders who also do not have proper training and do not even wear helmets. Awareness has to be raised among the citizens as well.”
Traffic department had also spoken to the department concerned to train these drivers but nothing materialised. According to the data available at the traffic department, last year, 213 roadways bus drivers were fined for violations between May 2019 to October 2019, and in the same period, 45 low-floor buses have also been penalised. Apart from this, action was also taken against 11,106 mini-bus drivers for breaking traffic rules.
An official also pointed out another issue and claimed that in majority of the buses, there are no speed governors, which is compulsory in commercial buses, because of which the drivers tend to speeding.