Chennai: The recent death of a 47-year-old Tamil Nadu State Transportation Corporation (TNSTC) bus driver who suffered a cardiac arrest on Saturday while he was driving the bus near Mettupalayam, yet again unveils the poor state of health of the state transport crew in the state. According to informed sources, at least 20 such accidents happened last year due to sick drivers.
In a similar kind of incident last year, a bus driver of 57 bus route suffered heart attack near the signal at Besan bridge and was pronounced dead. In another case, a 51-year-old bus driver kept calm, pulled over and stopped the vehicle to keep at least 50 passengers from harm, before he died in Maduravoyal. Drivers and conductors allege over-time work and stress to be the major reasons for their health ailments. Moreover, with several MTC drivers and conductors playing truant on rainy days, the load has increased for those present.
“The running time of buses was drafted in 1972 and till date, the drivers are assigned trips based on that. With route diversions and increased traffic, it is impossible to meet the timings mentioned in the chat. For example, it takes a bus driver at least 75 minutes to go from Koyambedu to T Nagar, whereas the chart mentions the running time as 50 minutes, which is not even achievable when roads are free of traffic,” said K. Anbazhagan, joint secretary, Nethaji Transport Union.
The transport crew also rue about poor medical facilities available to them. According to the government order, each driver and conductor aged above 45 is entitled to a free complete body check-up each year at a government hospital. “Though the department claims so, nobody has gone for a medical check-up since 2015. With no checks by the department, ultimately the passenger’s life is put at risk. The number of medical check-ups that private hospitals would earlier conduct at depots has also reduced drastically,” said a source from MTC.
