Road safety and the race to being 'right-on-time'

I preferred travelling 400 miles from Islamabad to my village in DG Khan by car. The journey took around 12 hours when there were no motorways. Now it takes more like 8 hours. We used to do it in daytime for safety and better visibility. Roads were narrow, with lots of potholes and incoming traffic including carts, motorbikes and bicycles. Sometimes, it was convenient to take a bus which usually ran in the night. Daewoo buses were thought of as a better service because, for the first time in Pakistan, they introduced a ‘hostess’ onboard who offered you a cold drinks and snacks. Some passengers saw them as a source of entertainment, starring at at them for timepass, or trying to be unduly friendly by offering their phone numbers or soliciting unwanted conversations. Others asked for many cup of coke or water just to make themselves feel pampered by a young lady. Some passenger even touched and groped them as they went past their seats in the aisle - yes that is sickening! 

The bus drivers dressed like airline captains with a cap and a uniform. There was an armed security guard onboard each bus. Seating in the buses was far better than in other buses. This service was started by a South Korean company by the same name which built Pakistan’s first motorway M2 from Lahore to Islamabad in 1998. With Daewoo's arrival, local bus companies were forced into competition. They improved their service to match the newcomer, yet Daewoo was considered to be the best service, even if a bit too expensive.

On one occasion I traveled from Rawalpindi to DG Khan by a local bus service called Rana Jahanzeb Daewoo. The word Daewoo had become synonymous with better service, often emulating what what the original Daewoo had started. The journey this time was like hell. The bus was driven so recklessly that on many occasions I felt like it was out of control, that it was going to crash into something coming from the opposite direction or just run into the fields. The driver applied emergency brakes, wheels screeched, the bus nearly lost its balance. Yet we recovered from it as if in a video game. The inside of the bus was filled with suffocating burning rubber smell from screeching tyres and brakes. 

The journey that started at 9pm ended at 5am sharp- 8 hours including half an hour break. When the bus finally came to a halt and we were getting off the bus I looked at the driver’s face, a radiant glow, a sense of accomplishment, a look of pride in his eyes. I remembered him telling me last night as I was getting in the bus;

Sir, I have turned on the engine and air-conditioning. Please 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.

He sounded all set and ready to go, with the 'exact time' of 8 hours as the most important thing on his mind. Other things, including our lives, did not matter or were perhaps of little consequence! 

I got off the bus with a sense of disbelief. It felt like a miracle that I and everyone else was still alive. Avoiding delays is one thing but these buses risk lives in order to be the fastest on the road, overtaking every other vehicle. The irony is that common people admire them for being the fastest, 'right on time' service. Road accidents are easily forgotten if one is not directly involved. 

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.