CHENNAI: With over 50 per cent of the victims of fatal accident involving MTC buses being two-wheeler riders, the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) has tightened its safety violation guidelines for bus drivers. The accident prevention wing of MTC, which is entrusted with the task of conducting field inspections on MTC buses on safety parameters, has categorised ‘non-maintenance of safe distance from bike riders’ as a safety violation on the part of bus drivers.
Drivers found violating the guideline a second time will be issued a charge memo, which may lead to a cut in their annual increments for three months . “Bus drivers should maintain a safe distance from the two-wheelers proceeding their vehicle so as to ensure that buses do not hit the two-wheeler from behind. We have already started to issue charge memos for such violations,” said an official from MTC.
The debt-ridden MTC administration has taken the move with an objective to reduce fatal accidents. Official records reveal the corporation pays Rs 5 to Rs 10 crore as compensation for accidents every month.
Based on the accident data of the MTC over the recent years, its safety department has recently revised the safety violations. The safety violation norms have been tightened as more than 70 per cent of buses are ‘over-aged’ (older than seven years), said sources. About 25 acts, including over-speeding in the early morning hours and over-speeding near school bus stops, have been categorised as violations.
“More than 50 per cent of fatal accident victims are two-wheeler riders. So, MTC drivers has been asked to maintain extreme caution while passing two-wheelers on the road,” added the official.Recently two accident prevention teams were constituted, each comprising an assistant engineer, two traffic inspectors and an investigative officer to monitor the bus operations across the city. The two supervisory teams had been issuing charge memos to drivers and conductors found with violations. Workers who repeat the violation a second time have been sent for safety training, said the MTC official.
According to official records, out of 114 persons killed in 2015-16, 40 are two-wheeler riders, while in 2016-17 and 2017-18, 62 and 43 two-wheelers riders killed in accident respectively, which accounts for 60 per cent of total fatal deaths, involving MTC buses.