One of the two buses that were involved in the crash on Diamond Harbour Road on Monday morning has been merrily plying along city roads with more than 300 traffic violation cases against it, according to police records.
Police sources said the bus on route 235 that plies between Amtala and Salt Lake has
multiple signal violation cases, central line violation cases and cases related to speeding and dangerous driving against it.
The police, however, pleaded helplessness. They claimed there is “no rule” that empowers them to stop such a vehicle from plying on the road on the ground that multiple traffic cases are pending against it.
“The owner has not paid the fine amounts for these cases. This is a common practice where vehicle owners deliberately do not pay the fines and after a hefty fine is compiled, they approach the (traffic) department through Lok Adalat seeking redress,” said the officer.
According to Lalbazar records, out of the 185 fatal accidents that were reported in Kolkata in 2022, 45 cases involved buses. Last year, 4,131 private buses, 41 state buses, 14 luxury buses, 325 minibuses and one school bus were prosecuted for rash and dangerous driving, the police said.
According to the rules, if a bus (or any vehicle) is caught violating a traffic norm, the traffic police can impose a spot fine. If the person at the wheel fails to pay the fine, the driving licence is seized and kept at the traffic guard till it is paid.
However, in case the violation is detected through cameras or spotted by a cop who notes down the vehicle number, e-challans are sent to the registered mobile number of the vehicle accused of breaking a traffic rule. “In such cases, there is no prevailing rule to seize a licence based on pending cases,” a traffic police officer said.
There could be hundreds of more buses plying on the road with a similar number of cases pending against them. This goes to show how unsafe the city’s roads are — for pedestrians and motorists.
“The number of cases speaks volumes about the pattern of driving and movement of the vehicle. In case of a passenger bus, the drivers are allotted by the bus syndicate and all the cases may not be during the stint of a single driver,” said an officer.
The drivers of the two buses involved in Monday’s accident on Diamond Harbour Road, which killed an elderly pedestrian and damaged at least two cars, had not been arrested till Tuesday evening.
