Despite witnessing severe road accidents that have been occurring due to overloading of public transport vehicles, the risky practice is still going on across the country. There never goes by a day when we do not see pictures of overloaded buses, rickshaws, wagons and other means of public transport in the press. The painful memories of killing of young school boys travelling on the rooftop of a crowded bus under the Ferozepur Road underpass in Lahore and later the unfortunate school bus crash in Kallar Kahar are quite fresh in our minds.
Even then neither the relevant traffic control authorities have done anything in this regard nor do the families of commuters discourage them to travel in dangerous circumstances. The root cause of this problem is in fact the insufficient number of public transport vehicles across the country. People have no choice but to travel in overcrowded public transport vehicles putting their lives at risk.
The government has to realise the severity of this issue and improve the public transport system by providing more vehicles and strictly putting traffic rules and regulations in place.
MUHAMMAD MUSSAB AQEEL
Karachi