On July 1, a private luxury bus bound for Pune overturned on the Samruddhi Expressway near Buldhana and caught fire, killing 25 passengers who were trapped inside, many unable to come out of the burning vehicle in time. Some of the survivors later recounted how they found it difficult to approach or locate the emergency exit at the rear of the bus. A week later, the lessons from that tragedy are yet to be learned. The Indian Express visited the parking bays of several private buses in the city to find glaring holes in fire safety protocols: emergency exits blocked by the installation of additional seats; inconvenient location of emergency doors; exits not clearly visible due to privacy curtains; no hammers to break open window glasses; and, lack of fire extinguishers. “I call these sleeper buses 'moving coffins',” said Ravindra Mehendale, a Pune-based transport consultant. It's not just experts, the passengers are worried, too. Shirin Khanum, who travelled from Parbhani to Pune, said she was in an AC sleeper bus and felt “very unsafe” during the journey. “I noticed that the passageway was very narrow and the interiors were very dark. There was no way of locating the main door and the emergency door. The curtains were drawn everywhere and I couldn't see anything that I could use to break open the windows if anything untoward was to happen,” said Khanum, who stays in Wanowrie. Asked about the safety measures, a private driver at a parking bay acknowledged that although most buses have emergency doors, they are not always easy to spot as they are covered by curtains. “There aren't hammers, but in case of an emergency we can help the passengers to break the windows,” said the driver who did not wish to be named. Given the situation, the Transport administration is now coming up with new plans and safety norms. “We have formed three squads, which are checking private inter-city buses for operational emergency doors, presence of fire extinguishers and hammers for breaking the glass windows and first-aid boxes,” Pune Regional Transport Officer (RTO) Ajit Shinde said. “We will continue the campaign as that will force the operators to comply with these important norms,” he said. According to Mehendale, the transport consultant, there are many flaws in the so-called AC sleeper buses and their use has been banned in many countries. “Apart from those in the sub-continent, I don't think any other country allows the use of these sleeper coach buses,” he said. “The single and double sleeper blocks made by modifying the seating structure makes it very difficult for passengers to move towards the exit in case the bus overturns. The double blocks are usually four-and-a-half feet wide and the opposite side for a single person is two-and-a-half feet wide. When a bus turns upside-down after an accident, all three people fall in one direction which reduces their chances of reaching the fire exit,” he said. Mehendale also suggested that one bus staffer should keep an eye on the driver to check if he falls asleep while driving. He also urged the government to install small fire extinguishers in each sleeper compartment.
