Last week, we heard again about a tragic and sad incident on the Kabul-Kandahar highway. A bus heading to Kandahar turned turtle due to the careless driving of the driver resulting in 16 deaths and more than a dozen passengers sustained injuries, some of them reported to be seriously injured. The incident was reported to have happened near Muqr area and injured were carried to the nearby hospitals while the serious ones were transported to the hospitals in Kabul. This incident left dozens of bereaved families sad and snatched their bread winners.

In past, there were accidents resulted by the firing of insurgents and terrorists or due to similar reasons of insecurity but from some time, such terrorist elements have either disappeared or made their activities limited. For all the incidents due to the insecurity, the transport companies and their drivers could have not been blamed but recently we have seen a number of sad incidents that were due to the careless driving of drivers.

It is said that companies compete each other in carrying the passengers in the least possible time and appreciate drivers who drive fast. This heedless race has resulted in a number of incidents due to over-speeding; killing dozens of innocent passengers. These companies later on do not make any kind of compensation for the death or in covering the medical expenses of the injured.

It has also been reported that there is not present any proper order and management to leave the bus stops in a queue or order and thus bus drivers try their best to be the first bus leaving the bus stop. It is a general perception that passengers become happy of this and they appreciate the brave driver who takes them to their destiny before others.

Due to over-speeding and frenzy driving, a number of these buses fell down from the sleep edges of road or bridge and many of them also came into contact with the landmines.

In this regard, some of the transport companies are very notorious for having such drivers who drive very fast and their buses arrive to their destiny before the buses of other companies. It is also sad that our traffic authorities have taken no action against these companies although all of them know that they are involved in such unhealthy practices resulting in the death of hundreds of their passengers.

In this regard, passengers are also responsible who travel in the buses of such defamed companies. If they stop travelling in them, companies would definitely be compelled to change their strategy. It is hoped that concerned authorities will take strict actions against such companies to make safe the worthy lives of our citizens.