Vow to stop unsafe bus firms

2010-01-05 19:03

Cape Town - Western Cape transport MEC Robin Carlisle said on Tuesday it was beyond his power to ban unscrupulous bus operators outright, but vowed to launch a formal investigation that could eventually cost them their licences.

Carlisle said he planned to resort to a procedure under Section 50 of the National Road Traffic Act whereby he can report transgressions to the Provincial Operating Licensing Board and request it not to issue licences to repeat offenders.

His statement followed a meeting on Tuesday morning with SA Roadlink, which has accused the provincial government of victimising it after a number of its buses were taken off the road in the Western Cape over the festive season.

The MEC pointed out that though Roadlink is licensed in Gauteng, the provincial licensing authorities could decide not to issue concurrence for operators registered elsewhere, closing the province to them.

Carlisle said he would send letters of complaint to companies whose buses were found to be unsafe, and demand they explain in writing how they were remedying the situation.

"I would hope the first letter would go out within the next 48 hours."

Intensify inspection campaign

Carlisle said police and transport officials would intensify an inspection campaign against buses that had in the past five months revealed problems with 2 671 vehicles and would suspend all those found faulty.

The list of faults found in recent months included a shock absorber snapped in half, headlights that could not dim, defective brakes, broken axles and cracked windscreens.

In one case involving Roadlink, a driver was found to be severely inebriated and arrested when he was stopped near Worcester.

Carlisle said provincial authorities would by the end of February be carrying out "24/7" inspections of buses leaving the province at the Beaufort West weighbridge on the N1 and the Swellendam weighbridge on the N2.

Buses caught avoiding these routes would be "prosecuted'', he said.

Criminal charges

Carlisle said he also planned to press criminal charges against operators whose buses were found to be a safety risk. A conviction could lead to a maximum prison sentence of six years.

He said the clampdown had revealed a weakness in the law in that it was difficult to hold bus operators directly to account if vehicles were faulty or drivers drunk.

"In most other countries where a drunk driver is found driving a bus, one would immediately go for the operator. South African law does not permit this."

He vowed to change the law and believed he would win the support of Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele, as he had run into the same hurdle when trying to ban a bus operator in KwaZulu-Natal while still MEC in that province.

Change the law

"I will ask Ndebele to change the law so that the onus falls on the operators."

In 2008, Ndebele severely criticised Roadlink after 11 people died in a crash involving one of its buses in KwaZulu-Natal. In July, eight people died when one of its buses overturned near Beaufort West.

Carlisle dismissed Roadlink boss Alan Reddy's claim that defects in his buses were mostly caused by damage sustained on bad roads in the Transkei, but added that the company was not the only offender.

In sheer terms of number of breaches, Golden Arrow Bus Services was among the worst, he said.

Reddy said Roadlink would co-operate with Carlisle's investigation.

His company claimed that over the festive season alone its vehicles were pulled off the road 200 times, leaving passengers stranded, while the Western Province accused it of stubborn failure to repair vehicles.

Reddy conceded that seven vehicles found to be faulty had not yet been repaired. He said the company had not "had the time" to do so.

Roadlink had suspended the drunken driver caught near Worcester.

- SAPA