Minibuses - the scourge of the roads

Minibuses – the scourge of the roads

Nov 24, 2009 Editorial

Another minibus crashes and there are multiple deaths. This accident occurs on a stretch of roadway that affords speed well above the limit. But there is more. Vehicles parked at the side of the roadways are not clearly seen if they do not have proper reflectors and to compound the situation the roads are not well lit. Streetlights are not at a premium.
Minibuses are needed forms of transportation in Guyana, given that public transport is not as what it should be. They are all pervasive now and people take them for granted. However, they have been in more road accidents than any other category of vehicle and because of their capacity, more people have died travelling in them. And given that they are so heavily used, their lives as vehicles are relatively short.
Many of these vehicles are not operated by the owners so the driver is expected to earn enough money to pay the owner, the conductor and himself. The end result is a hustle all day with the vehicles stopping suddenly at the first sign of a passenger at the roadside.
This has caused many collisions, albeit minor, but it has also signaled a culture of disregard for the traffic laws. Many of the drivers have been known to be extremely careless. They appear before the courts charged with some traffic offence then leave the employ of one of the owners of minibuses to seek employment with another. Some of them have been known to wreck one bus and go to work on another.
It is the belief that there are always minibuses to drive that affords that section of the road using public to be as careless as they are. Many of us have heard the complaints of passengers who rode in buses driven recklessly; there have been those who, too young to understand the danger, have been known to egg on the driver to do even more crazy things.
The only qualification needed to pilot a minibus is a driver’s licence that is five years old. Many of them are not well schooled so their ability to think rationally is lacking. This is why they ‘bore’ into traffic at great risk to the other drivers, abuse those motorists who hold their ground and get physically violent when challenged.
The most recent minibus accident that claimed six lives is now being blamed on the minibus driver. There are reports that he was less than attentive on the roadway, being oblivious to the many passengers and the fact that these people had placed their lives in his hands.
There were at least two teachers among the passengers and they should have been strong enough to demand that the driver does not drive excessively fast. Instead, they sat passively, perhaps afraid of ridicule from their peers.
This is not an uncommon feature. There have been reports of other passengers abusing the complaining one. This has happened in the case of someone mounting objections to loud or lewd music; to excessive speeding or to over-crowding. Some people have been known to withstand the abuse only to report to the first policeman he or she sees. Others have asked to be put out but so many others remained passive.
Eyewitnesses to every fatal minibus accident would testify that the driver was speeding. Later investigations would show that they had defective tyres and were defective in some way or the other. In almost every case, carelessness of one sort of another led to the accident.
And being what they are, minibuses are almost always involved in multiple deaths. The most recent accident merely reinforces this fact. Survivors talk of the driver taking his eyes off the road to do something not related to driving. In a flash he is into the back of the truck and six are dead.
In many countries, people are rigidly tested when they operate public transport or vehicles that move people in the public domain. Guyana needs to do this.