The Odd Bomb

While bus travel on Peradeniya road usually involves little more excitement than the uncertainty of whether you'll get a seat or not, whether you'll be able to get off at the right stop and not fall asleep or not, etc. etc., every once in a while something will happen to spice it all up a bit. Fortunately I haven't been involved in any serious accident yet, although according to this source (pdf) at least 2,000 people are killed, and 14,000 injured, in traffic every year. And these numbers may well be subject to underreporting. Only last Saturday a former Sinhala teacher with the Iowa program was hit by a bus and killed, much to the shock of my American friends who were very fond of her. And of course you have all heard of the recent horrendous Allawa bus accident where one bus, trying to beat another bus to awaiting passengers, started across a railway crossing, even though the barriers were down.

For anyone used to western traffic, south Asian conditions resemble mayhem. In deed, for a newcomer it would be hard to find travel on Srilankan roads anything but nervewrecking. Some drivers are worse than others of course - and some of the young ones especially, will make mad manuevers in order to overtake a vehicle or two. A van driver I once travelled with pulled up on the sidewalk, nearly ploughing down pedestrians, in order to advance a few positions. I suppose that move saved us 20 seconds or so. Shockingly, some of the bus drivers follow the same simple philosophy: "if there is anything in front of you, overtake it". Overtaking is done by throwing the bus over in the opposing traffic while blowing the horn, hoping that whatever is coming against you will stop.

Interestingly the one bus accident in which I have been involved was not with one of those drivers behind the wheel. This was a week or two after arrival in Kandy, on one of my first trips to campus. The bus had stopped to let people on, and while it was standing still, a car pulled out in the road in front of it where it stopped (this seems to be the accepted way of entering traffic - pull half way out onto the road, stop, look, then go). Our bus driver never saw the car and when accelerating, ploughed it at least a meter forward. Luckily there were no injuries.

- Bus accident on Peradeniya Road

I have become numb. No maniac busdriver can scare me anymore. This is what happens when you're exposed to madness for a prolonged period of time. You start accepting it. And while I applaud politicians' and officials' recent appeals to the public to take their share of the responsibility by notifying the authorities when they see wreckless drivers, I have low hopes of any drastic change of attitude. Although, according to media, a bus driver just recently attempting the exact same stunt (!) that led to the Allawa accident was apprehended by the police, thanks to a dutiful passenger notifying the police on his cell phone.

What I witnessed en route from Pera to Kandy today, was an accident of a different sort. In fact, I doubt it was an accident at all. Near town a sudden explosion shook the bus. It was so loud that I for a split second wondered if we had been hit by a grenade or a land mine. Equally bewildered, my fellow travellers looked at one another, and out the windows, to try and make sense of it. People on the street were rubbing their ears, looking just as confused as us. While the bus driver exited to investigate my neighbor leant toward me in a conspiratory manner, whispering the words "fire works", then grinning. That was one hell of a fire cracker, my friend. But he must have been right. Whatever it was there was a lot more noise than damage, and the bus could continue.

/haakon/