What if it had been rush hour?

COMMUTER SAFETY
Letter from Raymund Koh Joo Guan

I REFER to the report about the serious accident between a tour bus and an SBS Transit double-decker bus along Selegie Road on Tuesday at around 10am (“Bus-ted”, April 15).

The entire front left portion of the tour bus was mangled beyond recognition, showing the amount of damage an accident causes at speeds of around just 60kmh.

Every day, during peak hours, public buses are packed to the point where passengers are standing on the buses’ front steps. The safety of commuters, especially those squashed at the front, is at stake. With the added weight of an overcrowded bus, the distance needed to break would definitely be more.

Should an accident similar to the Selegie Road one have involved a public bus packed to the brim, hitting another vehicle from behind, the passengers on the steps and around the left wheel arch area would likely be killed or badly injured. Those standing anywhere on the bus would likely be affected by whiplash.

Can the Land Transport Authority or the Public Transport Council address this issue? Why should bus commuters be put in jeopardy daily? Isn’t there a limit as to how many standing passengers a bus can safely carry? Can’t the public bus operators put more buses on the road to prevent overcrowding?

As a First World nation, to ensure the safety of all commuters, everyone should be seated and no one forced to stand. Why does our first-class public transport system allow for a bus crammed full of passengers?

From TODAY, Voices – Friday, 17-April-2009