New Delhi : For a scooter rider, a green light means it is time to move. For a motorcyclist, a bus pulling up alongside is part of the daily commute. But when a routine ride ends in a fatal collision with a public transport bus, it raises a question about how safe Delhi’s roads really are.
In Sept, 19-year-old Himanshu died after his scooter collided with a DTC bus near Rathi Hospital in west Delhi’s Ranhola. The pillion rider, Monu Kumar, 24, was injured too. Before that, on Aug 15, Sonu, 22, died after a DTC bus hit the two-wheeler he was travelling on near Dichaon bus depot in Najafgarh. His pillion rider, 24-year-old Sonta, was injured. A day earlier, 12-year-old Kayna Pal was killed when a DTC e-bus hit the scooter on which she was travelling with her uncle in New Ashok Nagar.
Police said the bus driver fled the scene, prompting a hit-and-run investigation. Anil Chhikara, former Delhi transport commissioner, said, “There are three or four factors behind these accidents. Sources in traffic police said sensitisation programmes on road safety are conducted for DTC bus drivers. Buses are meant to use the left lane, but they are often seen moving in the middle or right lanes, the sources said.
In the past few months, there has been a series of fatal crashes involving DTC buses and two-wheelers at different locations across the city. Police arrested the bus driver and registered a case. The two were on their way to a school Independence Day function when the collision occurred. Kayna fell onto the road and was run over by the bus, while her uncle was injured. The driver was subsequently arrested. With fatal crashes attributed to DTC buses tripling in nine months, the rise raises questions about driver conduct, compliance with traffic rules and the effectiveness of measures to prevent such collisions. The figures alone do not establish why the crashes occurred, but the increase makes a closer examination of bus safety and accident-prevention measures imperative. The biggest is that electric buses have a faster pickup and accelerate rapidly. When they accelerate quickly on busy roads, the risk of fatal accidents increases. Another issue is the blind spot on the left side of buses. Drivers cannot see the area immediately below the windscreen, and two-wheeler riders often squeeze into small gaps and enter these blind spots. I have evaluated this myself and found that driving on Delhi’s roads is particularly challenging. Drivers may not always have the experience or expertise to react safely in such situations. However, violations can take different forms, including speeding, unsafe overtaking and failure to follow lane discipline. Such manoeuvres can create difficulties for other motorists, particularly two-wheeler riders sharing the road with larger vehicles.