Trucks, BMTC buses vie for killer tag

BANGALORE: 2003: BMTC buses kill 114 persons and injure 504.
2004 (till July 31): BMTC buses kill 56 and injure 286. Most vulnerable: Pedestrians - 37 killed and 99 injured in 2003. Ten fatalities and 53 injuries so far this year.
Safety measures: Speed limiting devices (max. speed 60 kmph) have been fitted to buses. But average speed on city roads is less than 30 kmph.
Despite the government initiating various programmes including stress management and yoga for BMTC drivers and fitting speed limiting devices in buses, the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation''s fleet of 3,663 buses remain killers on the city roads.
But trucks and two-wheelers have edged out BMTC to reach the unlucky top spot.
While trucks caused the highest number of fatal accidents killing 201 persons and injuring another 740 in 2003 (101 fatalities till July 31 this year), two-wheelers accounted for 194 deaths and 2,529 injuries (125 fatalities so far).
BMTC MD Upendra Tripati says various programmes for drivers and fitting speed control devices have reduced accidents.
BMTC began fitting derated fuel injection pumps to buses from April 2001. Of the 704 private buses, 120 are fitted with speed-control devices. But the number of fatalities shot to 472 in 2003 from 417 in 2001.
The derate pump limits the speed of BMTC buses to 60 kmph. Apart from cutting down the speed, there is reduction in the smoke level up to 15 per cent and fuel consumption, adds Tripati.
Stress management and yoga for drivers too helped to bring down the accident rate of BMTC buses. A BMTC driver, who did not want to be named, said: "Though there is a huge volume of traffic on city roads, we''re forced to speed to keep up schedule."