Not providing enough training is peak irresponsibility

The site of the accident involving an out-of-control BEST bus in which seven lives were lost at Kurla on Dec 9. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

A preliminary finding based on submissions by wet-lease contractors has revealed that the BEST undertaking does not have any training standard operating procedures (SoPs) for electric vehicles like that of standard, mechanical buses, a report said in this paper. An official cited in our report that usually the BEST trains drivers to operate manual buses for four weeks, but there is no prescribed training process for automatic and electric buses.

BEST officials said no concrete rules have been made yet for the training of drivers of automatic and electric buses. Due to this, there are no set rules and the investigation revealed that the driver involved in a recent accident at Kurla was given three days of training, one of the key reasons why drivers are unable to operate these buses properly, increasing accident chances.

This paper had also highlighted an earlier incident in 2021. At that time, a 76-year-old man from Cuffe Parade was killed after a bus hit him while he was crossing a junction after his routine daily walk. That was an electric BEST wet-lease bus. It is shocking that these drivers seem to have next to no training at all. This seems inexplicable and criminal to say the least. They are then stationed behind the wheel of these vehicles, operating them through narrow roads, crowded streets, pedestrians walking on roads because of pavement encroachment.

There needs to be substantial training on all buses, with experts deciding how many hours each driver needs. A training period of a month or more if needed, should be the norm. After all, it is small solace telling families of those who have lost their loved ones that the driver did not have enough training, or this was a bus by a wet-lease contractor. That is a life gone, a huge and life-changing tragedy for people. We need empathy, understanding and action from the people in charge.