Sudipto Mondal and Raviprasad Kamila/The Hindu 

• Vehicle users are accustomed to near-accident situations in Mangalore city
• We are guilty of flouting traffic rules, say some drivers
• Poor condition of roads is a cause for concern

Mangalore, Mar 26: Santosh Hegde (56) said he had a “near-death” experience near the Karavali Circle on Saturday. He was riding his scooter in the rain and the visibility was poor. “Suddenly, I saw a bus coming straight at me from the wrong side,” he said. Speaking to The Hindu immediately after the unnerving incident he said, “All I did was apply brakes and close the eyes.”

Although most of the vehicle users in the city might have been accustomed to such near-misses such as this, they are aware that everybody cannot be lucky everyday. On March 10, two college students were crushed to death by a bus at the State Bank of India terminus in Mangalore. One of the deceased was the son of a private bus driver.

A journalist from a Kannada daily here narrated a horror story about the time when he photographed a bus going berserk on the roads. “I rode away after taking the picture. A few minutes later, I heard someone honking loudly at me from behind. I turned around to find the bus I photographed hurtling towards me at full speed. I felt as though the driver wanted to run over me,” he said.

Preetam Biswas, a medical student from Mumbai, said that he had gone up to many bus drivers and told them to drive safely. “But they behaved rudely with me and used threatening gestures. One driver actually spat on me when I rode up to him at the Lalbaugh traffic signal. A policewoman saw it but did nothing,” he said.

K. Pushpalatha, a BSNL employee of Kulashekar, said that she had stopped boarding route number 22 (Bajpe-SBI terminus) buses. “Drivers on this route drive in a rash and negligent manner. I am scared of boarding those buses.” She said drivers on route number 6 (Shakthinagar-SBI terminus) and 21 (Neerumarga-SBI terminus) were no better. “They do not have patience to ride smoothly. Overtaking has become habitual to them,” Ms. Pushpalatha said.

She said that they drove away before passengers got into the buses. “It is no different while alighting. Women find it very difficult. I have heard many drivers abusing women riders of two-wheelers for their slow driving.”

Ms. Pusphalatha recalls how a girl, a relative, fell from a speeding bus in front of Ballal garage at Kadri a decade ago and died. “Today (Tuesday) I read in a newspaper that a man in Manjeshwar died after falling from a speeding bus,” she said.

Drivers’ woes

Drivers, who spoke to The Hindu, confessed that they were guilty of flouting traffic rules and over speeding. “But what do we do? There is so much competition,” said Karunakar Shetty (22), a driver on route number 15 which plies between Mangaladevi temple and Surathkal.

He said the biggest problem for bus drivers was the strict schedules enforced by Dakshina Kannada Bus Operators’ Association (DKBOA). “There are time-keepers at every bus stop. If we reach the stop late, we are not allowed to take passengers,” he says.

However, Rathnakar Mogaveera (28), another driver, said that many times, bus drivers who came late managed to take in passengers. “That is what angers me and I set off after those buses at full speed so that I can take in passengers before them,” he says.

Suresh (26), who drives the bus on route number 13, said competition sometimes turned vicious. “There has always been competition between route number 13 and 15 because they follow the same route till Kuloor after which they take deviation,” he added.

B.P. Diwakar, secretary, Dakshina Kannada Bus Operators’ Association, said that many roads in Mangalore and other parts of the district were in poor condition. “Drivers have to drive slowly on these stretches. Since they have to keep up their timings, they resort to high speeds wherever roads are good. It is only to adjust the time lost.”

He claimed that after the time keeping system was introduced, the number of accidents had come down considerably. Only a few drivers attended the annual traffic awareness programme organised by the Police and Transport departments, he said.