Causes leading to bus accident

On May 19, eight passengers were injured when a Kosovo-registered bus crashed on a highway near Eugendorf, Austria.

Radio Free Europe contacted the company “Armend Tours”, to which the bus belonged, but she did not respond.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kosovo did not respond to REL for additional information either.

Less than a year earlier, ten people were killed and dozens more injured in another bus crash in Croatia’s Slavonski Brod.

“It’s worrying because, lately, these accidents are happening at night or in the early hours of the morning,” he says. Muhamed Krasniqi, director of Tempulli College in Prishtina and expert on traffic issues.

In some cases, there have been suspicions that drivers have fallen asleep – which has led them to lose control of the vehicle.

Three drivers for distant destinations

Sinan Karavidaj is a manager in a transport company in Kosovo, which offers bus trips to various European countries.

Speaking to Radio Free Europe, he says drivers need to be well-prepared – both physically and mentally.

He says that “not all companies follow the rules” of road transport to distant destinations.

“To be a driver, you have to be prepared for this job, but today everyone is becoming a driver, without meeting the criteria. Also, competition… To save 100-200 euros some companies – e.g. to Germany – they do not take three drivers “, says Karavidaj.

At the company he manages, he says it never happens that buses leave for distant destinations without three drivers.

The schedule of long-distance drivers is regulated by the Law on Road Transport. According to this law, the duration of the daily drive should not exceed 9 hours. It can be extended to a maximum of ten hours, but no more than twice a week.

“After driving for four and a half hours, the driver takes an uninterrupted break of at least 45 minutes, unless he uses the break,” the law also states.

After the accident in Croatia in July last year, Radio Free Europe talked to a driver, who for 18 years drove buses from Kosovo to various European countries.

Asking to remain anonymous, the driver said that he has run the bus many times without a break.

“Part of the time I worked, we were just two drivers. The road is very arduous and what makes it even more arduous are the waiting across the borders. “When you wait up to five or six hours at a border point, then you automatically get overwhelmed there,” he said.

According to the data of the Bus Station in Prishtina, during 2021, 18,195 international departures were realized – mainly to Austria, Germany, Switzerland and other countries.

Kurtishaj: Increased responsibility is required

The Kosovo Road Transport Association promises that, after the recent accident in Austria, they will hold a meeting with road transport companies, in order to increase liability.

The president of this association, Ruzhdi Kurtishaj, says that the unpreparedness of the drivers can only be a cause of accidents.

“The accident does not mean that it is caused by human or technical factors, it can be other participants in traffic, it is also the atmospheric conditions”, he says.

“The road has its problems, accidents happen in every country in the world. “As Kosovo, we are preparing, even as cadres”, adds Kurtishaj.

Nebih Shatri, director of the Vehicle Department at the Ministry of Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure in Kosovo, says that in the field of road transport, Kosovo is equal to the countries of the European Union – both in terms of legislation and technology.

He declined to comment on the recent accident in Austria, saying the case should be investigated and its exact reasons known.

Regarding technical inspections, he claims that Kosovo is doing well and that buses are obliged to carry out these inspections every six months.

The Ministry of Environment in Kosovo has licensed more than 130 vehicle technical control centers.

In these centers, three types of technical inspections are performed: regular annual inspections, which are done for all vehicles; Periodic inspections, which are done for all commercial vehicles, including those with heavy weights, such as buses, as well as extraordinary inspections, which are done with the authorization of traffic police or other responsible persons.

Fatal accidents of buses from Kosovo

In July 2002, ten people lost their lives, including two children, when a bus from Kosovo crashed in Montenegro.

The bus with 40 passengers was traveling from Ulcinj to Kosovo, when it went off the road and fell down a hill. The accident happened around 05:00 in the morning.

In October 2004, 15 high school graduates from Kosovo lost their lives in a bus accident in Albania. Dozens more were injured – some seriously.

Nearly six years later, in February 2010, six people from Kosovo died when a bus traveling to Germany crashed near Vienna. The bus collided with two trucks near the Austrian capital.

In the accident of July 25, 2021, in Croatia, in addition to ten victims, more than 40 people were injured. This accident happened at 06:00 in the morning./REL

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