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Two buses collide in a side-swipe accident and 25 people are killed and many more seriously hurt: yet another serious accident involving public transport in Zimbabwe.
Both buses came from reputable companies and no one is trying to blame bad maintenance. It appears that, as usual, the accident was caused by a driver who was impatient and it is suspected that both drivers were exceeding the speed limit.
Public transport should be the safest form of transport and owners of bus companies should enforce the highest standards of driving. It is obvious, as anyone using our highways can testify, that this is not always the case. Too many drivers see their main objective as getting to the destination as quickly as possible, rather than as safely as possible.
This has to change.
In some countries driving a bus is seen as a fairly high-status job demanding a high level of skill and a range of personal attributes, and is rewarded accordingly.
For example, it is not uncommon in countries where all drivers can be routinely breathalysed to demand zero alcohol readings from bus drivers and to ban those caught speeding from driving another bus for the rest of their lives.
We need the same attitudes here with both bus and kombi drivers. They, above all other drivers, must always obey all road rules and see their primary objective as getting their passengers safely to their destination.
It is not just that more people die when a bus crashes, it is the right of people to use public transport safely that is so important.
Someone driving themselves or travelling in a friend’s car, or a relative’s car, is choosing the driver and can intervene if they think the driver is behaving badly. Someone on a bus does not choose the driver nor can they tell the driver to stop being an idiot.
To give our drivers their due, almost all are skilled, even the worst-behaving kombi drivers. And in general they are more skilled than most other drivers on the road.
But that does not mean they can break rules and regulations, both those set by the Government and the law and those set by their employers. It should in fact mean the opposite, that they set the example.
We need to instil a sense of professionalism within our pool of bus drivers so that they understand the requirements of the job, accept the responsibilities to their passengers and continually work at upgrading skills and upgrading the way they apply those skills. Bus owners can help this process by insisting that all their drivers are in fact following best practice and the highest possible standards.
Keeping schedules is important, but ensuring that all passengers routinely arrive safely is even more important. Charges against the bus owner, as well as against the driver, when a bus driver breaks safety laws might be one way of aligning the interests of passengers, drivers and owners.
The police traffic sections do tend to pay more attention to buses than other vehicles, and that is correct.
But we need to back enforcement with the willingness to remove the right to drive public transport vehicles from drivers who cannot routinely obey the law.
More willingness to take offending bus drivers to court, even for fairly minor lapses, and a greater willingness by the courts to revoke bus driving licences might help the process of creating a professional body of drivers proud of both their skills and their ability to protect their passengers.
Online Reporter