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Private Taxi Operators (K K Travels) make India's Superhighways unsafe.

Submitted by harshal on Thu, 2008-12-04 19:00.

Mumbai Pune ExpresswayA NRI (non-resident Indian) family decides to visit India to spend time with family and friends. It’s a happy family comprising of two small children who are loved dearly by their parents. The family is accompanied by the grandmother who is returning along with them after spending time with them in the US. They land at a metro (Mumbai) airport and since they live a few hours away in another city, they take a pre-arranged private taxi (K K Travels) to go to Pune on one of most 'safest' highways in India - the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. They meet with a tragic accident just 10 minutes away from their home in Pune. The family is no more… all that remains are memories and pieces of a broken family.

This could happen to you.
How can you prevent this from happening to you?

By making sure that the management of the private taxi operators have safety procedures and well-trained drivers. You must ask them -

  1. How many hours do your drivers work everyday?
  2. Do the drivers take a minimum of 8 hours of sleep before ferrying passengers?
  3. Do you own your taxi fleet and have drivers on your payroll? Or do they outsource the services to any available private cab?
  4. What kind of safety training have you provided to your drivers?
  5. Do your private taxis have seat belts in them? Do your drivers insist that the seat belts be used by the passengers?
  6. Do the drivers themselves put on the seat belts?

Map of accidentThese were the lessons learnt when Vikas Bhirud, Padmaja Bhirud (Toke), one of their twins, Arav and grandmother, Meenakshi died in the tragic accident on Mumbai-Pune Expressway.

What really struck me odd is that none of the newspapers mentioned the taxi was operated by KK Travels, even though the initial breaking news mentioned the name of the operator. It seemed like the travel operator didn't want to get associated with this accident at all - for obvious reasons. The news report would be read by potential customers of KK Travels who visit India and use their services.

NikhilI met a friend of Vikas, Nikhil Sarpotdar who told me that he used the services of KK Travels to go from Pune to Mumbai the same night when Vikas landed in Mumbai. It turned out that the driver, Sheikh who drove Nikhil at midnight from Pune was the same driver who picked up Vikas's family in the early morning. It is highly likely that the driver was sleepy when he was driving on the expressway at 140 Kms/hr.

 

Those who are gone will never be back. The little twin daughter who survived will never get the love and care of her real parents but what we can ensure is that this kind of tragedy does not befall on any other family visiting India. Please help in spreading awareness and compelling private taxi operators to adopt safety measures in India. As a consumer, you are responsible in ensuring your own safety!

Send an email to KK Travels asking them to employ proper safety procedures. 

 

News References:

  1. Times of India 
  2. Indian Express
  3. Sakaal Times 
  4. USA Today

Indian Roads are something to be careful on

Submitted by amitc on Sun, 2009-02-22 11:30.

My heart and wishes go out to the whole family including those who survived. I knew Pama & Vikas and will miss them.

In the last few years, this is the third case I know of serious accidents. It is hard to see close acquaintances getting affected. I would suggest everyone to take lots of precaution in general when traveling on Indian Roads:
-Travel in a large vehicle and preferably a private driver, not someone dependent on starting the next shift.
-Travel during the day on the road.
-Ask the driver to driver within speed limits at the beginning, the safety is worth the hour lost.
-Take breaks and ensure the driver has enough sleep. Sub-second response might be needed.

In this case in particular, though anything can happen in any country, it is hard to discount the driver and the company that encourages this, when you hit a truck from behind.

When I emailed KK (Kedar) about this, he emailed me their safety guidelines on asking. Even those are just guidelines, like drivers gets 2-3 hours for rest before starting back. It is not enough and it should be on their website.

I know, none of these changes what happened, but it is important to change a few things.

Best
Amit

Petition to the Maharashtra Government

Submitted by maheshkulkarni2000 on Fri, 2008-12-12 20:35.

Dear Friends,

I have written a petition to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra to start a MSRTC Volvo Bus Service between Mumbai Internation Airport and Pune. This will provide us a safer and reliable transport service between Mumbai Airport and Pune. I have also requested the government to implement strict laws to make sure taxi operators cannot make a driver undertake more than 2 trips between Mumbai and Pune in 24 hours as well as use of radar guns to penalize unruly drivers breaking speed limits. Please forward this blog and the link to the Petition to all your friends who make Mumbai-Pune travel and who can sign the petition.
You can sign the petition at :

http://www.petitiononline.com/Mum2Pune/petition.html

Thanks,

Mahesh

I travelled to India just a

Submitted by maheshkulkarni2000 on Fri, 2008-12-12 19:11.

I travelled to India just a few days ago by KK Travels car. The driver who picked me up at 3.30 a.m from Mumbai airport said he had to report to their office at 7 a.m for another pickup from Pune to Mumbai. I wonder how much rest these guys get. The driver told me KK has a fleet of 60 taveras and some 10 other cars. Even with that they fall short of demand. No wonder they employ unsafe drivers, their priority is probably keeping their business going.

We have to look for alternative means to reach Pune especially when we reach Mumbai in the early morning hours. All of us make enough money to afford an early morning flight from Mumbai. The problem is none of us want to wait another 4-6 hours after travelling for 24 hours. Most of us who have kids find it even more difficult to wait the night out at airport. But if we understand that even the best of drivers can make mistakes in wee hours of morning and even if you are alert somebody else could cause the accident we should be able to avoid making the unsafe travel. We probably should write a petition to the MSRTC to start Volvo service from Mumbai Airport to Pune every one hour. If KK can run 60 Taveras between Pune-Mumbai I am sure MSRTC will make enough money to keep the Volvo running every hour in the night from Mumbai Airport to Pune. We only will have to manage a pickup from Key points in Pune.

I personally will use the flight atleast when travelling from Mumbai to Pune next time. I could not find any good flight from Pune to Mumbai in the late evening but I will make sure I travel back early enough and hire a car from a reliable travel agent who doesn't run taxi service like this between Mumbai and Pune.