POLICE on Monday arrested the bus driver from Dhobaura upazila of Mymensingh who ran a passenger over after he was pushed off the vehicle by its helper at Bagher Bazar in Sadar upazila of Gazipur. Police said the victim’s younger brother filed a murder case accusing four people. On Sunday, victim Salauddin Ahmed, 35, worker of a local garment factory in Bagher Bazar, and his wife were returning to Gazipur from Mymensingh by an ‘Alam Asia Paribahan’ bus after celebrating Eid-ul-Fitr.
Salauddin had an altercation with the bus helper over fare while the helper beat him inside the vehicle and threatened to throw him out of the running bus. When the bus reached Bagher Bazar, the helper pushed Salauddin off the bus which was still running with her inside. As his wife was in the moving bus, the youth ran before the bus and asked the driver to stop it. However, the driver drove the bus over Salauddin, leaving him dead on the spot. The bus also drove away with his wife and dropped her 5 kms away.
This incident serves only to show the continued callousness of certain members of the transportation business. The utter disregard for human live as evinced by the attitude of the bus driver and his helper must be strongly punished. Why such workers think that they are immune to the workings of the law is greater than the need to punish them to prevent recidivism? Such a State of disregard must have some underpinnings in the psychological or sociological background of the workers. Studies have shown that long distance bus drivers are more prone to taking stimulants such as Yaba as they have to work greater distances to generate revenues for their owners. Similarly owners of such long distance vehicles do not care to take experienced drivers–preferring to take anyone who is willing to work on the cheap.
Such a deadly combination of probabilities must have its result–the drivers think that they have to make money which changes their attitude towards human beings. If revenue generation is the only thing in your mind you will not think of people as human anymore–only as cash cows.
