Road Safety and Regulatory Failures: The 'Sleeping Deathtraps' of Indian Buses
UPSC Relevance
Prelims: Indian Polity and Governance (Motor Vehicles Act, Concurrent List - Motor Vehicles); Economy (Automotive Industry, Regulations); Science & Technology (Safety Standards - AIS).
Mains:
General Studies Paper 2 (Governance): "Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation"; "Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability" (Regulatory failure).
General Studies Paper 3 (Disaster Management / Infrastructure): "Disaster and disaster management" (Man-made disasters - transport accidents); "Infrastructure: Roads."
General Studies Paper 4 (Ethics): "Corporate Governance" (ethics of body shops, OEMs); "Probity in Governance" (failure of regulatory bodies).
Key Highlights from the News
The recent bus accident in Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, points to safety lapses in India's "luxury" sleeper buses.
Frequent fires in such buses are due to manufacturing defects.
Main problem: Major companies (OEMs) only manufacture the bus's engine and chassis. The bus body is built by local body-building shops.
These manufacturing units often use low-quality and highly inflammable composite material.
Unsafe modifications, such as installing additional fuel tanks, also increase the risk.
Although Automotive Industry Standards (AIS) (safety standards) developed by the Ministry of Road Transport exist, they are seldom followed.
Crash testing is not performed after the buses are fully manufactured.
The arrangement of berths in sleeper buses restrict passenger movement in case of an accident.
Fire detection and safety systems are often ignored by these manufacturing units.
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