The long prison sentence was owing to the crash severity. Here is the crash summary:
The bus was going on an undivided road in Panna (rural MP). There were about 30 passengers on the bus. The bus driver lost control over the vehicle, causing the bus to fall off a bridge into a culvert. After the fall, the bus caught fire and caused the death of 22 of the passengers. The surviving passengers in their statement mentioned that the bus driver was driving recklessly and did not listen to the passengers’ request to slow down the vehicle. The investigation report for the crash also mentions that one of the passengers was carrying some flammable material that eventually caught fire.
The court gave imprisonment for 10 years each for 19 individual counts, amounting to 190 years imprisonment. Even the owner of the vehicle got 10 years of imprisonment because the bus had some fitments made that blocked the emergency exit and trapped the passengers.
Overall, the court’s verdict seems justified. The driver and owner’s negligence led to the death of 22 innocent lives. They deserve the punishment.
But, are they the only ones who deserve punishment?
Every crash has other contributors
Here is the news coverage of the crash:
If you look at the video closely, you may notice that the bus hasn’t fallen too deep. Don’t get me wrong, the bus has still fallen around 15 feet from the road. However, the fall is not severe enough to kill these many passengers or start a fire. The probable cause of the fire may be the flammable material carried by one of the passengers.
However, ask yourself this question: Why was the bus allowed to fall off the road?
Yes, the bus driver was driving rashly and lost control. But, shouldn’t there be a barrier to prevent the bus from falling off? An important function of road infrastructure is to prevent vehicles from going off the road. Yet, there was no barrier at this bridge culvert.
So, isn’t the road developer just as culpable for the injuries as the bus driver? A simple implementation of a roadside barrier could have prevented the loss of all those lives.
Yet, the court has not punished the road developer.
This narrow-minded outlook of looking for someone to blame is a big reason India has increasing road crashes.
The problem with looking for “crash causes” instead of contributors
I wish to clarify that I do not intend to start a blame game on “who is at fault” for the bus crash. In fact, my intention is exactly the opposite. Through my investigation of hundreds of road accidents in India, I am clear about one thing: Every crash has more than one contributing influence.
Take the bus crash we saw above. If we take a broader view of the crash, the following contributing influences can be noted:
- The rash and negligent driving of the bus driver.
- The absence of a roadside barrier over the culvert.
- One of the passengers carried a flammable material that may have started the fire.
- An illegal fitment that blocked the emergency exit and trapped the passengers.
A remedy to any one of these influences could have either prevented the crash or reduced the injury severity. However, the court verdict singled out the driver and vehicle owner as the main crash causes.
Unfortunately, this happens in almost Indian crashes. The driver is always “at fault”. The influence of vehicles or road design is rarely considered.
What we fail to realize is that this practice of blaming a single cause is unknowingly putting all of us at risk. The court felt justified in jailing the driver and owner for the bus crash.
But, will this prevent a similar crash from occurring in the future? What if another vehicle falls down the same culvert because the barrier is still not installed?
I understand that the court has to uphold the law and it has to follow a certain procedure. However, when it comes to reducing crashes, we need to have a broader outlook.
The three primary crash contributors
There is never a single crash cause. Instead, there are multiple contributors to a single crash. The crash contributors can be divided into three broad categories:
- Human contributors or the human failures that led to a crash.
- Vehicle contributors or vehicle failures that led to a crash.
- Infrastructure contributors or problems in the road design that led to a crash.
A crash can have more than one contributor or even different factors from the same contributor.
I will share some examples to clarify further how contributors influence a crash:
- A crash caused by overspeeding and drunk driving has two separate human contributors.
- A crash due to a tyre burst has one vehicle contributor. Or even a human contributor if the tyre is not well maintained.
- A crash caused due to a pot-hole has a failure due to the road design.
- A crash between two vehicles due to overspeeding by one vehicle and sudden lane change by another vehicle has two separate human contributors, one for each vehicle.
- The bus crash we discussed earlier had at least two separate human contributors (reckless driving and flammable material) and one issue with the road design (lack of roadside barrier).
But these are just the contributors that led to the crash. What about the contributors that lead to road crash injuries?
Contributors to crashes and injuries are different
It is important to know the difference between the contributors that cause crashes and the contributors that lead to injuries.
Check any statistic report on crash causes. You will find “overspeeding”, “drink and drive” or “low seatbelt and helmet usage” as the top causes.
The whole purpose of identifying top crash causes is to take focused actions against these factors. A stricter police enforcement and education drive will help in reducing crashes due to overspeeding and driving under influence. But, will increasing seatbelt and helmet usage reduce crashes?
No.
Let us assume that every person in our country starts wearing seat belts and helmets. However, doing this does not guarantee a reduction in crashes. A person wearing a helmet and riding at high speeds is still highly likely to be involved in a crash.
But, does that mean we should stop wearing helmets and seatbelts?!
No!
Helmets and seatbelts are essential in reducing crash injuries. A person wearing a helmet, but driving at a high speed will still get involved in a crash. However, the same person may not get injuries because of helmet usage.
Another way to look at this is to think in terms of Active and Passive safety.
- Active safety measures are the steps taken to prevent a crash from occurring. Enforcement drives to reduce overspeeding or vehicle features such as ABS, ESP, or road design elements such as signage are all active safety measures to reduce crashes.
- Passive safety measures are the steps taken to reduce the likelihood of injuries once a crash has taken place. Crashes cannot be always prevented. However, taking steps such as wearing a seatbelt or helmet, using a child car seat or safety harness, designing energy-absorbing roadside barriers, etc. reduce the likelihood of severe injuries.
Contributors to crashes and injuries are independent of each other. It is important to differentiate these contributors to find make it easier to find solutions for each of them.
It is time to stop playing the “Blame Game”
We have over 1.5 lakh people dying on our roads every year. Yet, we are finding it difficult to stop the rise of road crash deaths. To reduce road crashes, we need to stop tackling singular crash causes by blaming the crash only on human failures.
We need to take a new approach by looking at all the different contributors to road crashes and the subsequent injuries.
At an individual level, we need to take measures that reduce our chances of crashes and injuries by:
- Following the principles of Defensive driving
- Paying attention to the safety principles on two-wheelers, especially the safety of children on two-wheelers.
- Understanding the important safety features in cars
- Following the safety guidelines for pedestrians.
At a country level, we need to look at the overall crash influence of the three main contributors i.e. Human, Vehicle, and Infrastructure. Only a holistic approach to studying crashes can help us in preventing them and save lakhs of lives.
Last Updated on August 15, 2022 by RSG