The buses in Coimbatore violated all the safety norms besides rash and negligent driving.

Highlights The race left the heart of passengers inside the buses pounding

The buses violated all safety norms besides rash and negligent driving

Licences of both the private bus drivers have been suspended

Two private buses race each other on the highway in Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore and one speeds ahead on the wrong side, in a heart-stopping video that has gone viral on social media. The licenses of both the drivers were suspended on Saturday.The buses were racing each other on the Coimbatore-Pollachi highway. The video taken by motorists behind the buses, left many hearts pounding. What the passengers may have gone through can only be imagined.Besides rash driving on the highway, the bus drivers seemed to have thrown all caution to the wind. One of the buses is seen crossed the adjoining lanes and going over to the wrong side, a move that put several lives in danger, including those of passengers and cars coming from the opposite side.A district official at Pollachi, Gayatri Krishnan, acted after watching the video."Construction work is on in this stretch of the road and we have warned the bus owners that they will lose their permit if rash driving continues. We had seized licences of three drivers earlier for the same offence," she said, adding that more road transport inspectors will be posted on highways to monitor any violations.She has called a meeting of bus owners to end this.Over the past few months, strict monitoring and action against traffic defaulters has brought down road accidents on this stretch from 12 in February to five in March to just one in April.

The root cause, experts say, is the rush to cover the 44 km road; buses race in an attempt to bring in more passengers."We are exploring possibilities to increase the timing so that there is no incentive for buses to drive in such unsafe manner," Ms Krishnan said.