‘Honouring’ the law: Deadline nears for passenger buses to free emergency exits

Transport dept had given one month to transporters to make emergency exits functional in vehicles

KARACHI: If public buses fail to provide emergency exits on their vehicles, they must face the wrath of the Sindh transport department, which had given them a one-month deadline on January 11.

The warning came soon after a deadly accident on Kathore Link Road on the National Highway in which 62 people died. The notification was issued with the consent of intercity transporters, explained commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui. “They had a month to open the emergency exits,” he said. “On February 12, a crackdown will be carried out across the board.”

The transport department’s focal person said they have two departments to ensure the law is being followed. “The transport department is the authority that invokes the laws, and the police and the traffic police enforce these laws,” he said, adding that their crackdown against those buses violating the emergency exit law will start from February 12.

Not everyone has high hopes from the drive. Urban Resource Centre director Zahid Farooq felt the crackdown will only last a few days. “After a month or two, no one will even ask about the emergency exit gates,” he said. He urged the media to keep mounting pressure on the government so that the law can be enforced.



The bus operators are, however, afraid that opening the emergency gates will reduce their earnings as they will have to pull out at least two seats. The ticket seller at Zamindar Green Coach, Jatio Alipur, estimated that the fare they will lose subsequently will be around Rs2,000 a day. “In the long run, this will affect our salaries too,” he said.

The coach in-charge, Khalid Mehmood, said they will open the emergency gates as they are part of the law. “When it comes to the life of passengers, profit or loss does not matter,” he said.

However, only three out of the 10 non-air-conditioned coaches have emergency gates. For the rest of them, he shrugged off responsibility saying the three-foot-wide windows are equal to an emergency gate. “In case of an emergency, people can open these windows and jump out,” he said. On inspection though, none of these wide windows have handles that can be pulled open.

As for the passengers, they leave everything to fate when they board these buses. “I have been travelling on these buses since my childhood and nothing has improved,” said 60-year-old Abdul Aadi, who was waiting for Zamindar Green Coach to take him to Sadiqabad in the Punjab.

“These are not normal vehicles, they are funeral carts,” claimed Aadi. “No one knows whether or not they will be dropped home or if they have boarded a ride straight to their graves.”

The disgruntled passenger had little hope for change after the transport department’s notification. “Such orders are just formalities,” he said. “A few buses will install the exit gates, others will not; a few will be fined and later everything will go back to normal.” For Aadi, ‘normal’ is not having emergency exits.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th, 2015.