Bus drivers, who are responsible for over 35 per cent of road accidents, should be sent to attend short courses on traffic awareness at regular intervals, police told a group of bus and minibus owners on Tuesday.

The police had invited the operators to a “traffic awareness and sensitisation programme” on Tuesday where video clips about how bus and minibus drivers were responsible for road accidents were shown.

The idea was to let the operators realise that traffic awareness among drivers can help reduce accidents, police officers said.

“The video clips were of real accidents. It was meant to help owners and others
present at the session understand how drivers are responsible for them,” said a senior police officer.

This was the first such interaction between police officers and bus owners since an 11-year-old died in a road accident involving two racing buses in Salt Lake in early
November.

At a subsequent meeting presided over by Firhad Hakim, the urban development minister, and Snehasis Chakraborty, the transport minister, it was decided that bus and minibus owners and the cops would meet regularly to discuss how to improve traffic awareness and reduce accidents.

There were close to 160 run-over deaths in Calcutta last year.

Police officers told the gathering that if the owners got together to send bus and minibus drivers to attend awareness sessions, the number of fatal accidents could come down significantly.

The awareness sessions are held at the traffic training school of Kolkata Police where instructors take up case studies to help the participants identify their mistakes and make necessary corrections.

“A snag like a brake failure can be tackled by performing simple procedures. The drivers can save themselves and the lives of others,” said another officer while showing a clip of an accident resulting from a brake failure.

Representatives of at least eight major organisations of bus and minibus owners, who comprise the majority of the bus transport sector in the city, attended Tuesday’s meeting.

Among the video clips, one was that of a traffic sergeant prosecuting the driver of a private bus for drink driving on Monday morning.

The report revealed that the driver had 55 per cent blood alcohol content, said the police officer conducting the session. “If owners check the licences of the drivers, they would be able to identify the nature of offences under which police have booked them,” the officer said.

“If these drivers are sent for a short session, they can make a difference on the roads.”

Several bus owners welcomed the move and said such sessions with the police have been missing for some time.

“It would be helpful if the police could hold awareness sessions in different areas. Sending drivers to attend short sessions would also mean that the drivers won’t lose their day’s salary,” said Pradip Narayan Bose, the secretary of the West Bengal Bus and Minibus Owners Association.