Safety of passengers our top priority: Volvo

With the two bus accidents back to back that shook the country's faith in Volvo, the automobile giant known for prioritizing safety and comfortability, the company has come out in open to re-instate the faith of people who use their product—buses. Akash Passey, senior vice president, Volvo Bus Corporation flew all the way from Frankfurt as soon as he heard about the Haveri tragedy involving yet another Volvo bus. In an interview with TOI, he summed up, saying, "Collaborative approach of all stakeholders and public awareness will help us make road travel safer and prevent such incidents altogether." In the last 15 days, the bus infernos killing many have only shaken the faith in people who have been used to Volvo for so many years now. Are your buses so susceptible to catching fire? Circumstances for each of the incidents are different and cannot be juxtaposed. That is why the authorities go investigate into each of it and that is why we conduct independent enquiry into each time. I understand that both the incidents have high impact and the consequences are substantial. That is where the investigative authority needs to look into. We are trying to understand what is it that is not good enough—the product, the manufacture, the operator, the road or the driver. I have not heard of fuel tank blast anywhere because all our vehicles plying across the world are made of global standard plastic mould that can burst. But then of course, if there are sparks that can ignite fuel. It is baffling but we need to wait for the investigations to point out what has gone wrong in each of the cases. Low ground clearance has nothing to do with the accidents. It is a good practice in the bus industry. It helps avoid any roll over and the centre of gravity comes down during any mishaps. We comply with all regulations of the country we operate and in fact, add 10 to 20 extra features to enhance safety and comfortability. All our axles have disk brakes which again prevent roll over. Volvo was the first one to change the scenario is the bus industry in India. It brought rear engine and true bus chassis whereas, the buses used to be mounted on truck chassis and have features similar to trucks. The regulations demand to have just two emergency exits, we have four but it is not just important to say whether two or four is enough. On our multi axle buses, 10 out of 12 window glasses can be broken by any hard object, excluding the wind shield. The roof hatches are not made for emergency exit but can be used if the bus topples. Do you customize the buses for Indian road conditions and further to suit operators' demands, if any? Does it not give the liberty to choose business over safety for operators and for the company? Ground specifications for bus making across the world is almost similar. But we of course have to comply to country specific regulations too. There is customer adaptations concept too, but if the demands to modify are well within the norms and the client pays for that, we will do it. As manufacturers, we have annual maintenance contracts with each and every customer (operators) but if they want to get maintenance done from others for our vehicles, we have no control over that. If, the operator uses old chassis or second hand chassis, here is where the fitness certificate issued by government authorities comes into play. Why did Volvo represent to withdraw a circular demanding to insert a middle door in 2011. You have been asked to do the same again after the accidents have drawn flak for not having emergency exits? I deny we will go force the authorities to pull off a rule to suit to our needs. When KSRTC wanted middle door, we gave them buses having middle doors. If the Central Motor Vehicle Rules of the country requires us to do something, we will follow it. We stand by safety at all times. Where does your accountability take a back seat after the vehicle is sold? The team in India is doing as much they can do to help investigate and understand how we can evolve to better safety requirements for our buses. A special technical team is also coming to India to threadbare each and every detail. In another 10 days we would be ready with our enquiry for the Haveri accident. We provide safety manuals and CDs to every operator to play before each trip starts. We also request them not to fatigue drivers and put two drivers for long distance trips. It is pitiable that Volvo first started the driver training programme that changes lives of drivers. The drivers of luxury buses used to sit beside the co driver holding big steering wheels and in not so comfortable environment. We included their cabin within the passenger cabin, gave adjustable chairs, air conditioning for them, rear view mirrors that can be adjusted from a host of features in front of them so that they can only focus on the road. We have so far trained 20,000 drivers but only 72% pass this test. This is not only restricted to operators who buyVolvo buses but to other operators who have not boughth buses from the company. What steps is Volvo taking to re-instate the faith in people for its brand and buses. In the last five years we have seen a lot of collaborative approach from the public transport operators and we also associate with them to know what is happening and what needs to be done to make travel safer. We will certainly discuss these issues with our clients (operators), authorities and other stakeholders to ensure that collaborative approach and public awareness of what are their rights when they travel and what should they seek for, what should they know is increased. TNN