IT WAS IN THE EARLY 1980s and I was a young reporter.
I remember covering the assignment with ace photographer Charles Grant. As I recall, an elderly woman was walking along Codrington Hill Road, St Michael, when she was struck by a Transport Board bus. She died on the spot.
While death in such tragic circumstances always attracts attention, on this occasion another fact took the headline. The bus that killed her was not licensed to be on the road. It had not passed inspection.
I am reasonably sure that this incident did not cross the minds of the managers of the Transport Board when they decided to place an ad in the press on Sunday warning commuters of probable delays in service because of the need to ensure all units on the road complied with Road Traffic Regulations.
I commend the Transport Board for being proactive by alerting passengers to the challenges they could face. That’s the way an organisation that recognises the value of its customers ought to function.
Unfortunately, the board exposed its not-so-pretty underbelly in the process. It spoke to the problems associated with keeping its units roadworthy, since the newest in its fleet are nine years old and the oldest over 18 years old.
To be fair to the board, it is hard for us to keep our private cars in good working order for more than five years given the state of so many of our roads – and doing the same with buses must be exponentially more difficult. We can, for example, decide to avoid Highway 1 because it is in such a poor state. The Transport Board can’t.
And some of our country roads are in such a horrible state they make Highway 1 look like a freshly paved airport runway.
But back to the issue. If the youngest buses in the board’s fleet are nine years old, and the current Government is seven years old, it means the last time a Government bought a bus was two years before the Bees left office. Whatever is the shelf life given for a bus by its manufacturer, we all know that it has to be shorter than that given our road conditions and the fact that the board is notorious for not being able to meet the recommended maintenance schedule.
And that, my friends, is why we are at this junction. For seven years, a Government, faced with an ageing fleet, failed to buy a single bus. Just in case someone thinks I am taking a swipe at the current Minister of Transport and Works, Michael Lashley, let me point out that he has been in that post since the last election.
The man who held the post for the longest time under the Dems was current Minister of Health John Boyce. In other words, John Boyce did not buy a single bus when he was minister and today the board can’t meet its obligations to commuters.
So folks, don’t cuss the general manager, or the terminal manager or the driver when you can’t get home or to work, this is above their pay grade.