The deaths of at least 60 school children in a bus accident in the Indian state of West Bengal is the latest in a series of disasters involving buses and coaches in the country. As Alastair Lawson reports, the accident provides a vivid example of the dangers of bus travel in India, normally done in over-crowded vehicles on poor quality roads:

This is at least the tenth time in the last 12 months that an accident involving a packed bus has killed dozens of people.

Each time an accident happens, an official enquiry is usually set up and politicians express their condolences to the bereaved families. However, there are seldom any concrete measures to end the carnage of India's over-burdened roads.

Drunken driving, speeding and erratic behaviour are rarely punished. Many drivers are poorly paid, illiterate, and have vehicles that are not properly maintained. Many drivers do not possess driving licenses. There is little difference between buses operating in the private and state sectors: both tend to carry more passengers than the law allows. In most cities, the doors of buses are not closed, so that the conductors can squash in as many pasengers as possible.

Many of the more serious accidents, like the most recent example in West Bengal, occur when a bus falls into a river. At least eighty people - including children - died this way in the state of Andhra Pradesh alone in September and October.

Bus operators say they cannot afford to comply with safety regulations, because for the most part it would mean carrying half as many passengers and taking twice as long to do it. They say they would still have to pay bribes to the police on top of that.
 

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