The electronically-controlled speed-regulating device of the tourist bus that rammed a KSRTC superfast bus from behind at Palakkad on Wednesday midnight was found tampered with, so that it could operate at speeds in excess of 80 kmph, up to 100 kmph, Transport Commissioner S. Srijith said on Thursday.
An investigation will be done to identify how this tampering was done and how the bus was operating at 97.2 kmph at the time of the crash. Moreover, the Motor Vehicles department’s (MVD) automated system sent an alert twice to the mobile phone number of the bus owner about the grave speed violations en route. This is in addition to other violations such as retrofitting of high-decibel music systems and lights which were bolted to the body of the bus to enable their removal during inspection, said Mr. Srijith after visiting the accident site.
Pointing out that Kerala has a population of 3.3 crore and has a whopping 1.6 crore vehicles, he said the 368 enforcement personnel of the MVD had a tough task at hand. The bus accident came at a time when accident fatalities had reduced by 13.50 %, following which the Kerala Road Safety Authority (KRSA) wrote to District Collectors to roll out steps to further bring down fatal accidents to 20% by year-end.
Advice to students, parents
He exhorted students, parents and teachers to be aware of the fact that students ought to be moulded as model citizens and that life was precious, while booking buses for tours. Sadly, enforcement personnel are portrayed in bad light when they penalise violators of road safety rules.
Efforts are under way to install vehicle-location tracking device (VLTD) in 8.35 lakh vehicles in the State (following the Nirbhaya rape incident within a moving bus in New Delhi). Ambulances too will have this device to prevent illegal transportation of goods and the practice by some operators of taking injured/critically ill patients to hospitals located way farther than the one closer by. This would also rein in accidents involving speeding ambulances, said Mr. Srijith said.
