Five students were also among those killed in the October 6 accident.
Kochi:
A day after nine people, including five students, were killed in a bus accident, the Kerala High Court on Friday advocated a change in “street culture”. Nine people were killed and over 40 others injured when a private tourist bus rammed into the rear end of a government bus on Wednesday.
The government told the court that the Motor Vehicles Department had sent two alerts to the owner’s mobile phone regarding over speeding. “The bus was blacklisted for five offences,” the transport commissioner told the court. He said there are GPS systems for public vehicles and out of about 8.35 lakh vehicles, only 2.5 lakh have installed it.
Justice Devan Ramachandran, who intervened in the matter, had sought a report from the police and motor vehicles department.
State Transport Commissioner S Sreejith, who is also the State Road Safety Commissioner, appeared before the court and presented various aspects and issues before the concerned departments.
The court observed that even though the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) was booking a large number of violations every day, it did not yield any concrete results on the roads. “It does not produce a tangible result on the streets because possibly even criminals continue to do so under the conscious or presumption that the consequences are small,” the court said.
Justice Ramachandran asked the transport commissioner to take strict action through MVD officials by sending a stern message to all the drivers in the state that “negligence and negligence will not be tolerated and they will be accountable to law”.
“The street culture to which we are now accustomed will surely have to change and this can be done through a clarion call by the authorities who are vested with the powers… Will not be tolerated and will be dealt with by the highest order of law…”
The Transport Commissioner said that district-wise toll-free numbers were already active to report traffic violations and asked the court that a state-wide toll-free number may be set up to report traffic violations.
“Such an accident should never happen again and it is a pre-requisite for action and not mere excuse or explanation,” the court said.
Various members of the bar also narrated their experiences in the city and on the highway about their encounter with the carelessness of drivers handling transport and contract carriers.
Justice Ramachandran noted the reckless driving of private bus drivers across the state.
The court fixed the matter for further hearing on October 28 and directed the Transport Commissioner to suggest ways to make the roads and lanes safer.
The court also asked the Transport Commissioner to ensure that lane discipline is enforced.
“Lane discipline should be ensured and left track should be kept for heavy vehicles. On single-lane roads, MVD should ensure that drivers are not careless,” the court said.
He also submitted before the court that 726 artificial intelligence cameras would soon start functioning across the state to nab traffic offenders. He said that there are only 368 MVD officers to monitor 1.67 crore vehicles in the state.
State Transport Minister Antony Raju had said yesterday that the tourist vehicle was driven at a speed of over 97 kmph on Wednesday and the accident occurred when the driver tried to overtake a car.
According to police, three of the five students who died were girls. The ages of all the deceased are between 15 and 17 years. Over 40 people were injured in the accident that took place at Vadakkanchery in Palakkad district.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)