9 May 2008
Ndola — THE issuance of speed limiters to public transport operators using smaller buses is a matter of crucial urgency, Communications and Transport Minister, Dora Siliya, has said.
Ms Siliya said in Lusaka yesterday that the rate at which passengers were dying in road traffic accidents through the use of smaller buses was alarming.
She directed the Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) to hasten the process of ensuring smaller buses were urgently equipped with speed limiters.
Ms Siliya, on a fact-finding mission to the inter-city bus station in the company of RTSA acting director Fredrick Mwalusaka, said the rising road carnage in the country was worrisome.
"Why should we have these limiters only on bigger buses? I am directing the RTSA to immediately ensure that all the public service buses have road speed limiters to help monitor their speed and movements," she said.
Ms Siliya, who boarded a small public bus from the station up to Longacres, said the introduction of road speed limiters was supported by Statutory Instrument 19 of the Road Traffic Act number 11 of 2002.
Currently, only bigger passenger buses have speed limiters fixed on them.
"I am here on a fact-finding mission. I want to interact with both bus drivers and passengers and get a better story. I have been receiving numerous complaints from the general public on the way drivers of small buses operate.
"We have seen so many accidents especially among these small buses, but some could have been avoided," she said.
She urged the RTSA to work closely with bus operators and ensure that all public service buses were certified fit before leaving bus stations to avoid accidents.
Ms Siliya said local authorities should use the money they collect from bus operators on upgrading infrastructure at bus stations for the benefit of passengers.
"The K60,000 that you are daily collecting from each bus operator is a lot to help you provide better services and improve the bus stations. Passengers should be well protected through conducive environments," she said.
And Mr Mwalusaka said the agency would ensure all the bigger buses have speed limiters before extending the exercise to the smaller ones.
He said the installation process slowed down because there were only two suppliers of speed limiters in Zambia.
Meanwhile, the Lusaka inter-city bus station management has appealed to the RTSA to deploy some traffic officers at the bus station to help restore order between the bus operators and passengers.
Station manager, John Walubita, said there was need for effective patrols to restore sanity to the bus terminal.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Times of Zambia. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
