Road Safety
When I had a car I preferred to drive 400 or so miles from Islamabad to my village. This journey used to take around 10-12 hours. We traveled during the day for reasons of safety and better visibility on roads, roads that were not in the best of conditions and had two way traffic on them, including carts and bikes. Now that I didn't have a car, there were two options: (1) take a bus from Rawalpindi to DG Khan and get a lift to the village, 10 miles towards the Indus, (2) take a Daewoo coach from Rawalpindi to Multan, then another bus or a mini to DG Khan (60 miles) and finally a lift from DG Khan to the village.
Daewoo buses are believed to be better because they have a ‘hostess’ onboard who offers you a drink and some snacks. The driver wears a uniform and a cap like an aeroplane captain and there is an armed security guard onboard. This service was started by a South Korean multinational which also built Pakistan’s first motorway M2 (from Lahore to Islamabad). With Daewoo's arrival, local bus companies were forced into competition. They improved their service to match the new comer, yet Daewoo is considered to be the best service, even if a bit too expensive!
I traveled from Rawalpindi to DG Khan by a local bus called ‘Rana Jahanzeb Daewoo’. The word Daewoo has become synonymous with better bus service. The journey was like hell. It was driven so recklessly that on many occasions I felt like the bus was out of control, that it was going to crash into something coming from the opposite direction. The driver applied emergency brakes, the wheels made screeching noise, the bus nearly lost its balance. The inside of the bus was filled with suffocating burning rubber smell. We started at 9:00pm from Rawalpindi and reached DG Khan at 5:00am in 8 hours including half an hour break in the middle. When the bus finally came to a halt, I looked at the driver’s face, radiant with a sense of accomplishment, even pride. I remembered him telling me last night as I was boarding the bus:
Getting off this bus now, it felt like a miracle that I and everyone else on that bus was still alive. Avoiding delays is one thing but these bus companies risk lives to be the fastest and hence the best service. The irony is that people love to talk about how good this service is because it is the fastest.
Road traffic accidents is one of the leading causes of deaths in Pakistan. According to WHO, in 2018 alone more than 30,000 people died due to road terrific accidents.
Daewoo buses are believed to be better because they have a ‘hostess’ onboard who offers you a drink and some snacks. The driver wears a uniform and a cap like an aeroplane captain and there is an armed security guard onboard. This service was started by a South Korean multinational which also built Pakistan’s first motorway M2 (from Lahore to Islamabad). With Daewoo's arrival, local bus companies were forced into competition. They improved their service to match the new comer, yet Daewoo is considered to be the best service, even if a bit too expensive!
I traveled from Rawalpindi to DG Khan by a local bus called ‘Rana Jahanzeb Daewoo’. The word Daewoo has become synonymous with better bus service. The journey was like hell. It was driven so recklessly that on many occasions I felt like the bus was out of control, that it was going to crash into something coming from the opposite direction. The driver applied emergency brakes, the wheels made screeching noise, the bus nearly lost its balance. The inside of the bus was filled with suffocating burning rubber smell. We started at 9:00pm from Rawalpindi and reached DG Khan at 5:00am in 8 hours including half an hour break in the middle. When the bus finally came to a halt, I looked at the driver’s face, radiant with a sense of accomplishment, even pride. I remembered him telling me last night as I was boarding the bus:
Sir, I have turned on the engine and the air-conditioning is also on now, you can get in and take your seat. We have improved our service, we cover the journey in exact time (i.e. no more than 8 hours).
Getting off this bus now, it felt like a miracle that I and everyone else on that bus was still alive. Avoiding delays is one thing but these bus companies risk lives to be the fastest and hence the best service. The irony is that people love to talk about how good this service is because it is the fastest.
Road traffic accidents is one of the leading causes of deaths in Pakistan. According to WHO, in 2018 alone more than 30,000 people died due to road terrific accidents.
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