Cut corners take toll in bus crashes
The road accident involving a double-decker bus that killed 18 holiday-makers and injured 30 more this week indicates that serious safety flaws remain in the nation’s public transport. This latest mishap occurred on March 21 when the driver of a bus belonging to Kalasin-based Kan-eng Co lost control of the vehicle while negotiating a winding slope on Road No.304 in Nakhon Ratchasima’s Wang Nam Khieo district. The doomed bus was on its way back to Kalasin from the eastern province of Chanthaburi where its passengers had been holidaying.
According to an initial investigation, the driver, Kritsana Chuthachuen, made an ill-judged attempt to overtake a lorry but instead ended up swerving across the central barrier and ultimately plunging the bus off the road.
Mr Kritsana, who initially fled the scene, but later reappeared and turned himself in to the police, in part because the injuries he sustained required medical treatment, attempted to sell a version of events in which he blamed brake failure for the crash.
However, during questioning he confessed that he made up the story about the brakes as he had been speeding before losing control of the vehicle. The bus’s global positioning system showed that the bus had been travelling at 83km per hour which is in excess of the legal limit of 60kph.
A drug test also came back positive for amphetamines. He admitted to police he took speed pills twice during the trip. A further background check revealed he had faced drug charges five times between 2002 and 2013.
Mr Kritsana has been charged on three counts, including the drug offence and careless driving causing death and injury.
The March 21 crash affirms that more must be done on road safety — or lack thereof — after efforts to regulate double-decker vehicles following a series of fatal crashes have only resulted in more apparent loopholes.
It’s true that the number of crashes has declined, compared to past years, but each new accident seems to result in a greater number of deaths. Before the March 21 crash, the public was shocked when 12 passengers were killed in November last year as their double-decker coach plunged from the road as the driver tried to negotiate a steep slope in Lom Sak district in Phetchabun.
Before this, transport authorities had suggested that restrictions should be put in place to bar double-deckers from some roads, especially those with rough terrain, steep slopes or sharp bends.
How did the driver, a well-documented illegal drug user, pass the required background check?
The Department of Land Transport in March last year reduced the maximum legal height of double-decker buses from 4.30 metres to 4m, while Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha announced a ban on registering new double-decker buses in 2016 following several deadly crashes. There are reports that those already in operation will eventually be decommissioned as bus owners cannot extend licences. However, at the time of the announcement there were still 20,000 such buses in operation. The government told the media it did not expect “to see many more double-deckers on Thai roads”.
The so-called regulations currently in place are no more than ad hoc measures taken in the wake of well-publicised accidents in order to persuade the public that action is being taken.
While the Education Ministry has prohibited school trips that are too long or involve night travel, it remains unclear whether other measures, such as route bans for double-deckers, are actually enforced. Indeed, the March 21 crash and the one in Lom Sak which involve tough routes seem to suggest that the ban may have had no effect.
More importantly, this most recent calamity indicates major flaws in law enforcement regarding road safety. It turns out that some public transport drivers feel confident speeding despite their vehicles supposedly being required to have been fitted with speed-limiting devices. Not to mention conflicting accounts about these buses’ roadworthiness.
The Transport Ministry owes the public an explanation as to why both technological and procedural safeguards appear to have been so easily circumvented.
On top of that, the biggest question raised by events this week is the failure of bus operators and state authorities to conduct adequate checks on the drivers they employ, who passengers are expected to trust, to drive on these arduous routes
How could Mr Kritsana, a well-documented illegal drug user, be hired for a job that requires a clean background check? Clearly corners are being cut at every level of the public transport system and the cost is in lives.
It’s time for those in positions of authority within public transport to insist that procedures are followed, vehicles are inspected and background checks really happen.
For if they can’t ensure these basics of public safety are adhered to, people who can must be brought on board instead, otherwise what purpose do these officials serve?