Fatal Accident in Almaty: Company Did Not Want to Disclose How Drivers Are Protected

This past weekend, after its driver had been assaulted, a bus drove into a crowd of people at a stop. Three people died on the spot, four others were hospitalized. Orda.kz has looked into how protected urban passenger transport workers are.

Details on The Accident

The incident happened on December 22 at 18:15. A passenger on private transport operator DumanTransKom LLP’s bus No. 47 struck the driver because of a conflict. She lost consciousness and control of the transport, causing it to hit people and parked cars. The transport operator’s name was immediately reported to the PD.

Later, a video of the attack emerged. Two seventeen-year-old boys who were nearby at the time shared details with Orda.kz. On December 25, doctors spoke about the victims’ conditions. The 36-year-old driver is in the department of neurosurgery. She has a closed craniocerebral injury, as well as bruises on the soft tissues of her face.

A court must clarify all the circumstances and hold those responsible accountable.

Protection?

Similar structures as depicted below used to be in some buses, separating the driver from the entire cabin.

Now such protection has been mostly abandoned, it is not provided for in orders from the manufacturer's country.

But sometimes you can still find something like this:

However, according to some influencers, one of the main reasons for what happened is the city’s unbalanced transport system. Orda will discuss this in another article. Sometimes bus drivers themselves are blamed for systemic problems. They are also often accused of unprofessional behavior. There is some truth in this, say residents who travel around the city every day.

A public transport driver is assigned several responsibilities nonetheless. The employee is obliged to comply with the norms, rules, and instructions on labor protection. He may also be held accountable for causing material damage to the employer. But regarding drivers' rights, as it turned out, there are much fewer responsibilities. There is a Labor Code and a Constitution, but, as we can see, they do not always work.

There is a clause in the rules of transportation that it is forbidden to be drunk on buses. The driver is also obliged to control occupancy. This alone allows for the restricting of boarding and refusal of service, but it does not apply to the specified incident.

There is no official document regulating what the driver should have done on that ill-fated evening.

There is, however, such a suggestion: one can make a remark, but if this does not help, the bus should be stopped and the police called. Dealing with a non-compliant passenger is still the police's responsibility. Yet, these are all after the fact. How, then, are drivers protected from attacks? It turns out they are not.

Transport Operators’ Opinion

We tried to contact DumanTransKom, but we were stonewalled. According to a company representative named Manas, no one will comment.

We will not say anything about the incident and what will happen with the driver now or in the future. I won't comment on how employees are protected either,  he said.

DumanTransKom route No. 47 was "inherited" from Avtotransgaz LLP in the middle of summer 2023 due to the early termination of the latter's work.

According to publicly available information, a company with this name is engaged in completely different matters: "Dumantrans.COM" (051040010236 BIN) — leasing of passenger cars and light vehicles. Its founder (stakeholder) is Gulnar Kozhentaeva.

However, there are two other companies. The first one is "Duman Trans KZ" (191140024644 BIN). The second is DumanTrans.COM2019 LLP (191040010600 BIN). Both opened in late 2019. They also have several contracts with the Office of Urban Mobility of Almaty and receive subsidies for "losses related to transportation on socially significant lines." 

The former is headed by Talgat Isabayev, and the founder (stakeholder) is Akmaral Bopunova. And the latter company is managed by the same person as in Dumantrans.COM", Gulnar Kozhentayeva.

According to other representatives of transport companies who were contacted, all drivers are instructed on how to behave in conflicts, especially ones with drunk passengers and disruptive ones. Video surveillance cameras can help understand what happens.

My Job Is Turning The Steering Wheel

An Orda correspondent has reached out to a former driver of the state transport operator Almatyelectrotrans LLP. On condition of anonymity, he said that a driver should initially ask the problematic passenger to leave, drop him off at a bus stop, and refund their money. However, passengers are not always willing to do this voluntarily — sometimes physicality occurs.

Yes, it is the driver who should be responsible for the order on a bus, but without endangering himself and others. Usually, in conflict situations, it is advised to stop and call 102. But until they arrive, other passengers may also be upset, and it’s word after another word, they can kill... like it or not, you will (have to - Ed.) respond to outbursts. There were different situations — they rushed at me with a tire iron, and the side window was broken, the driver said.

What to Do?

There is a lack of 3,000 public transport drivers in Kazakhstan, and most current ones are not far off from the retirement age. The requirements for potential candidates are planned to be reduced, Transport Minister Marat Karabayev said in December. But it is unclear when this will be.

According to the chairman of the Independent Automobile Union Eduard Edokov, it is necessary to pay attention to the organization of drivers' work. The expert believes that if the salary and conditions were decent, more people would work there, reducing stressful situations for the population and drivers.

There is an acute shortage of public transport drivers. Perhaps the pay and working conditions are not so good, since (people - Ed.) do not go to work (there - Ed.). All in all, it's pretty hard work. If the transit around the city starts at six in the morning, then they need to be in the transport park at five, undergo medical checks, carry out a vehicle inspection, and more. They can work two shifts in a row due to lack of money, and this means fatigue, decreased concentration. Of course, the employer — the transport operator — and the state, first of all, must guarantee them the protection of their rights and lives,the expert said. 

Today, 26 December 2023, the Minister of Labor commented on the accident.

According to Svetlana Zhakupova, Kazakhstan's Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Population, drivers and passengers must be isolated from each other. How this will be done - only time will tell.

Original Author: Alexander Smolin

DISCLAIMER: This is a translated piece. The text has been modified, the content is the same. Please refer to the original article for accuracy. The information has been updated as of 26/12/23 to reflect the current situation.