The first specific details of the programme to replace vans with micro buses for inter-city and inter-provincial passengers are now known. The Central Land Transport Control Board, under the supervision of Deputy Minister of Transport Pichit Akarathit, aims to have 55 buses on the roads by July 1. The pilot project will provide useful information. However, this optimistic report leaves out the single most important point.
It is well recognised that vans are involved in too many road and highway crashes. The main catalyst for the current programme to replace passenger vans with micro buses was the horrific crash in Chon Buri during the New Year long weekend. It was when a van driver lost control, crashed head-on into a pickup and killed 25 people in the smash and resulting fire that authorities decided to rush ahead with this bus-for-van replacement.
The problem, in a nutshell, is that the ill-fated van did not crash itself. Post-accident investigation revealed a story that is far too common. The driver of the van was on his fifth Chanthaburi-Bangkok round trip of the holiday weekend. This is far beyond any reasonable safety limit. The driver wanted the money that multiple trips bring, and his company's attention to driver fatigue was, at best, questionable.
It is unambiguously clear that driver-company collusion is at the bottom of dozens, if not hundreds of fatal accidents involving vans. Tired drivers, irresponsible drivers, speeding drivers and just unqualified drivers are common in this branch of public transportation. If airlines hired and supervised their cockpit crew like van companies obtain and schedule drivers, there would be plenty of plane crashes.
The coming changes to inter-provincial and inter-city travelling must not focus on the physical change from vans to micro buses. The incoming system must put safety over expediency. This will require new rules, which are under discussion. But most of all, it will require regulation, supervision and constant, unyielding enforcement of those rules.
To put it starkly, placing micro buses on the city streets and inter-provincial roads without a completely new transport regime only means more highway deaths. The need for massive change is clear. The fact that the country has the world's second most deadly highways only means that reforms are neither fast nor comprehensive enough. But change has to begin somewhere, and the micro bus replacement programme provides an opportunity for proper, strict and life-saving control.
Mr Pichit, along with concerned departments and ministries across the board have a choice. They can view the vans-for-bus replacement as a bureaucratic move. Or they can bring in sweeping steps that are all-encompassing.
The deputy minister is currently making much of equipment and technology -- new vehicles, reorganisation of bus companies, GPS and the like. This will amount to little without better driver selection and training, proper regulations including hours-worked and, most of all, unrelenting reinforcement.
Last weekend, Mr Pichit revealed the first details of the programme. Its exceptionally optimistic goal calls for the replacement of 6,400 inter-provincial vans by the end of the year. Transport Co concessions will automatically lapse, and new regulations will come into force as the buses replace vans. He detailed new rules such as the size and number of seats, and said fire extinguishers and emergency exits will be mandatory.
This a good start. From past practice, it will occur and continue only with strong enforcement. In short order, one hopes Mr Pichit and his ministry deal with those details as well.