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Passengers, place your lives into the hands of Providence
2008-05-09 09:13:55
By Editor
Yet another grisly accident has claimed at least seven lives in Morogoro.
This is but one in a string of similar tragedies that have occurred recently, not to mention the past occurrences, such that bus accidents have become more of a notoriety than unpredictable disasters.
What is even more saddening is that there has been a public outcry over reckless driving which has been the cause of most of the ghastly incidents.
These have resulted into the perishing of precious lives, the maiming of healthy individuals and subsequent shattering of their future ambitions.
The more vocal the public has been on the matter, the more mad the reckless bus drivers have become, such that they have rendered useless the outcry of the wananchi.
In a way, the sacredness of human life is increasingly becoming threatened whenever one boards a bus for a long journey.
The situation calls for an analysis as to why passenger safety has deteriorated to such a low level. Surely, there is more than the eye can meet.
We can sum up the causes of the rise in death toll on our highways as follows:First and foremost, the major cause is the existence of non-qualified drivers of buses which ply our highways.
The witness to this is the chief of traffic police, who was once quoted as saying that a great number of passenger bus drivers have been found to possess fake driving licences.
He went as far as promising a major crackdown that would end the problems.
Sad to say, nothing like that has been done, as lives continue to perish at the hands of such twisted minds who man the steering wheels.
Two: The sacred cows who are none other than drivers of long-distance buses—which are part of single-owner fleets—are feared by traffic police officers because they are well connected such that they are not booked for speeding.
Three: Fake or mediocre tyres.
The problem of massive importation of imitated goods is evident when it comes to increased occurrences of motor accidents which are attributed to burst tyres.
Some bus operators have gone public to complain that the poor quality of imported tyres has been responsible for several bus accidents.
This problem has largely been ignored much as it is real.
Four: Drug abuse. Given the occurrences of ghastly accidents whose horrors are conveyed by eyewitnesses and the media, it would be foolhardy for a grown up person who is driving a passenger bus to embark on reckless driving in spite of his conscious realization of the consequences.
Still, the drivers do exactly that. Why? Many of them are probably drug addicts.
Five: Irresponsible passengers. These are the ones who yell at the drivers that they should drive at break-neck speed.
This is the craziness of the highest order, because the main victims are the passengers themselves.
Six: Corruption in the police force. If the traffic police did their duty as stipulated, we would have very few motor accidents which were not man-made.
However, corruption is rampant in the traffic police force.
Evidence to this is the public admission on the existence of the vice by none other person than the commander of the traffic police division.
Given this situation, is there any hope for improved passenger safety? Should it mean that when a person is boarding a bus, he is placing his life into the hands of the Almighty? Indeed, who can save this passenger?
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