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Minibuses are nothing but death traps

Nov 01, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,
The time has come for the authorities to ban the importation of minibuses for public transportation purposes, and encourage the use of big buses instead. It is obvious that one of the factors in our public transportation road safety dilemma is the vehicle itself.
From an engineering point of view minibuses are nothing but death traps. Their powerful engines permit drivers to attain speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour; they lack stability which causes loss of control and roll over even at moderate speeds. Their flimsy bodies and chassis are quickly ripped to shreds in a collision.
I seriously doubt whether any of these buses could meet the stringent vehicle safety standards that are enforced in the developed countries and particularly in Japan from where they are exported. Has anyone in the ministry responsible for public transportation ever looked into safety ratings of these vehicles? How many lives have been lost from big bus accidents over the last 10 years? Compare this with the numbers lost due to minibus accidents.
The other issue is the human factor. It is obvious that we have in our nation a cadre of local road terrorists, who are enormously reckless persons, having no regard for their own lives and the lives of others. By importing these “death boxes” we are simply enabling their malfeasance; and, for some inexplicable reason we seem to have bus commuters who delight in being crammed into overloaded buses and in being driven at break-neck speeds.
Wake up Police Traffic Chief, don’t waste time with another “operation” in which several buses will be pulled into some police station to be photographed for propaganda purposes. This type of response will never change those negative attitudes, as we have seen so often in the past, one week after the “operation” it’s back to speeding and overloading as usual.
To quote the calypsonian: “How many more?”
Carlyle A. Benjamin

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