Article 2
On Monday April 9, 2018, a driver was carrying about 34 kids on a bus in the Kangra district of India. At 4 p.m., the bus was driving students from school in Himachal Pradesh on the rocky road. The school bus took a sharp turn and plummeted 200-300 feet into a deep gorge, authorities claimed. The crash had killed 27 children. The age ranged from 4 to 12 years old. 3 adults were also found dead at the scene, the bus driver and 2 teachers. President Ram Nath Kovind of India tweeted and confessed he was "extremely saddened to learn about the tragic school bus accident in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh". In his tweet, he also expressed his condolences, and he gave out thoughts and prayers to the families of the injured and deceased. The NDRF (India's National Disaster Relief Force) is currently searching for anymore passengers stuck in the bus. An investigation is also being conducted to further look into the incident. However, these accidents are very common in India since there are poor foundations, careless safety measures, bad driving, and badly maintained roads and vehicles.
Discussion Questions:
1. What do you think India's government can do to ensure that accidents like these don't happen regularly?
2. Should bus drivers be given a test to ensure that the children are given a safer ride back home and to school? Why? How?
3. How can India's drivers avoid getting into big accidents like this?
On Monday April 9, 2018, a driver was carrying about 34 kids on a bus in the Kangra district of India. At 4 p.m., the bus was driving students from school in Himachal Pradesh on the rocky road. The school bus took a sharp turn and plummeted 200-300 feet into a deep gorge, authorities claimed. The crash had killed 27 children. The age ranged from 4 to 12 years old. 3 adults were also found dead at the scene, the bus driver and 2 teachers. President Ram Nath Kovind of India tweeted and confessed he was "extremely saddened to learn about the tragic school bus accident in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh". In his tweet, he also expressed his condolences, and he gave out thoughts and prayers to the families of the injured and deceased. The NDRF (India's National Disaster Relief Force) is currently searching for anymore passengers stuck in the bus. An investigation is also being conducted to further look into the incident. However, these accidents are very common in India since there are poor foundations, careless safety measures, bad driving, and badly maintained roads and vehicles.
Discussion Questions:
1. What do you think India's government can do to ensure that accidents like these don't happen regularly?
2. Should bus drivers be given a test to ensure that the children are given a safer ride back home and to school? Why? How?
3. How can India's drivers avoid getting into big accidents like this?
I don’t think that the Indian government can immediately do anything to prevent things like this from happening because India is just overpopulated and filled with poverty. When there are that many people in a country widespread poverty is guaranteed and that means the government can’t properly enforce or maintain less important things like smaller roads or many safety standards. I think that yes, of course bus drivers driving children should be tested and qualified to ensure the safety of the children, however, I think testing in this case wouldn’t do anything. This is because the test wouldn’t be able to be regulated and people would just find a way around it since there are so many other things for the government to worry about that aren’t bus safety. I don’t think that India’s drivers are so much at fault, rather it is the government that is at fault. Since the roads are dangerous, being rocky and having sharp turns with large drops, drivers are inevitably going to get into accidents. The government needs to maintain the roads better in order for safety to greatly improve. According to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, in 2015 around 146,133 people were killed and 500,279 were injured in road accidents in India.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think that the driver should be solely responsible for the accident because in this situation the main problem was the roads because of the sharp turns and rocky roads. And Indian article states that “the problem of poorly constructed roads is long engraved in India...Potholes, roads under construction, poorly cons poorly concreted speed breakers and down-and-out drainage system on the roads are a cause of increasing accidents, deaths and health problems in the country”(https://mediaindia.eu/business-politics/poor-road-infrastructure/). I can personally relate to this and claim that this is true because I have been to India many times and I have faced and witnessed all of these problems. I think that the number of deaths caused by poor infrastructure is not justifiable and I think the government needs to figure out a way to solve this problem by fixing the roads and making it a more safer environment for everyone. One way would be to make all the roads smoother to avoid bumpy travel and further risk of accident. However, I do think that drivers should be selected carefully and tested on their skills in any situation to ensure the maximum protection possible for the passengers. There should also be frequent checks to see if the driver is driving under the influence. Overall, India needs to develop their road infrastructure and they need to only give licenses to people who are qualified enough to make sure that they ensure the safety of themselves and their passengers.
ReplyDeleteFrom personal experience, the transportation industry in India is poorly managed. The government is barely involved in the situation and does little to address it. From going there, I have seen large trucks driving on the opposite side of the road, people walking in the middle of a busy highway, and other people driving at over 100 mph on a busy freeway. In order to solve this, the government needs to prioritize this problem much higher. They need to be stricter on the road regulations, and take a bigger lead on helping solve this issue. Everyday, many people are either killed or harmed due to a lack of help and inexperienced drivers. The first steps the government needs to take would be, making sure every driver on the road is properly able to drive without causing any damage, clearly marking speed limits on mainstream highways, and being much stricter on mistakes people make and giving them consequences. If you compare the situation to the one in America, there are way less problems here than there are in India. India should use US road regulations as a model and find a solution that is cost effective as well as safer for people driving. If this can be done, I feel that we will rarely here about incidents like the one in the article. It is simply a matter of the government getting more involved with the scenario.
ReplyDeleteAccording to an Economic Times article, more than 150,000 people, in India, are killed each year in traffic accidents, which is about 400 fatalities a day. Car accidents are a major issue in India and the Indian government hasn’t been doing much about it. I think that India’s government could better enforce driving laws. For example, having more police patrolling streets and highways for speeding could decrease the number of car accidents that happen in India. They could also enforce slower speed limits in certain areas with rocky terrain. Another possible solution to this recurring issue would be to put money towards fixing bumpy roads and potholes as well as having monthly vehicle safety checks. I think that school bus drivers being given a safety driving test is a good idea, but a person’s driving skills can always vary. Putting up speed warning indicators and sharp turn signs on the sides of roads could help drivers drive slower and with more caution. India’s drivers could avoid getting into accidents by driving carefully and paying attention while on the road. To lessen the amount of car accidents that happen daily in India, their government could spend money on putting up higher barriers as to not cause vehicles to crash into one another or go off a cliff.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you that the government hasn't done that much, or anything to deal with the frequent car accidents happening in India. It is a smart idea for signs to ensure the drive is more safe from place to place. I get what you are saying in putting money towards fixing bumpy roads and potholes to help with less accidents, but how will India provide money to get those fixed? Should the government pay for costs even though they haven't done anything about the numerous car accidents happening daily? I'm pretty sure that drivers would want to be careful on the road especially when carrying younger kids in the vehicles, but these accidents happen so frequently it becomes a very unsafe environment for other drivers and vehicles. As you said, there should be signs to indicate the speed limit so it could reduce the amount of crashes, but would it be best to put them in the most dangerous streets and roads, or have them all over to keep roads and streets safe all through India?
DeleteVehicle accidents are a problem worldwide, and because of poor road conditions the frequency of accidents is probably heightened in India. This is definitely a problem the government should try to solve and there are more than a few ways to do so. First of all, I think the government should enforce stricter vehicle safety policies. According to an article from "the Times of India" only 25% of Indian drivers wear seatbelts. Seatbelt policy clearly isn't well enforced and in the case of the bus of students I think it would be valuable to require buses with seatbelts to prevent injury in the event of an accident. Regarding accidents in general, I think it would be worthwhile to heavily enforce speed regulations and traffic laws, especially because fixing the roads would be a very expensive undertaking. I definitely think school bus drivers should be tested, especially because the maneuvers and technicalities of driving a school bus differ from those of a regular car. Drivers of special vehicles, buses, trucks, etc need to be fully prepared to drive safely. Overall, I cannot say wether or not fixing and repaving roads would be an affordable option for India, but there are other ways driver and passenger safety can be improved.
ReplyDeleteThe government definitely should do something to address this issues. Some things it can do include having better paved and managed roads; however, India’s government may not have the ability to cover all of the costs that doing this would demand given that there are various other issues to address as well—it may not be addressed well. Bus drivers should be tested to see whether they are following rules, and can navigate India’s currently treacherous roads. Whether there is the resources to do so is debatable. Currently, there isn’t much bus drivers can do to avoid accidents other than driving “responsibly” and trying to be careful in more treacherous regions.
ReplyDeleteOne way the government of India can help the situation is by fixing their roads. Instead of a bumpy dangerous road, if they were on a flat and smooth road the bus driver wouldn't of toppled. Bus Drivers should be issued a test in order to drive children around because there could be even more issues if there were un-certified drivers driving children. Additionally, India's drivers should slow down and drive carefully in order to prevent these excessive accidents. I don't know if the people inside the bus were wearing seat belts, but seat belts would definitely help in that situation .
ReplyDeleteIn order to prevent an accident like this from happening again, the government should implement better safety precautions. For example, they should make sure all roads and vehicles are better maintained. They should repair damaged roads, and require transport vehicles to be regularly checked to make sure they are safe. They should also have police on the roads to make sure people are driving safely, similar to how they do in the US. To ensure safety, drivers should be tested have harder tests to make sure that they can actually drive well. Also, drivers should be taught what to do in case of emergencies.
ReplyDeleteAs an Indian, I say India needs to improve their foundations. I can't drive there because there is no such things as lanes and traffic lights and PAVED ROADS AREN'T ALWAYS PAVED. I'm fortunate to be living in an area where things are kept in order. I am fully aware there are many many cities that need help repairing. I's be surprised if any bus driver could drive through bumpy roads and return kids home safely everyday for years. A fault foundation is doomed to fail. India should focus on trying to make their roads smoother.
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