It is hoped that the root cause of this accident is thoroughly investigated.
ISLAMABAD: This with reference to your report of September 27 of a tragic bus accident that occurred on the motorway and in which several dozen lives, including that of many children, were lost.
For starters, the bus was overcrowded and carrying over a hundred passengers, most of them students. Why was this allowed by the school authorities or even by the motorway police that regularly patrols the motorway? The reason being cited for the tragedy is that the bus’s brakes failed. This could have been avoided had the vehicle’s fitness been checked, like it is supposed to be under the law. All public transport vehicles are legally bound to have in their possession a vehicle fitness certificate after a physical inspection and after an inspector has ensured that they are worthy to travel on the road. This is the norm in developed countries but in Pakistan such fitness certificates can usually be bought at a price. It would be fair to presume that the bus under question either had no such certificate or that its proprietor managed to obtain one through this usual manner.
It is hoped that the root cause of this accident is thoroughly investigated and the guilty party, be it the school authorities or the owner of the vehicle, is held accountable and prosecuted.
Iftikhar Shaheen Mirza
Published in The Express Tribune, September 28th, 2011.
