Oh, my goodness, Mr. Alexis. For God’s sake, go around, ask around and find out who’s the luckiest priest on the island. Hook him up for a month or so and get him on all the buses without exception to throw holy water. One by one. Because at the rate we’re going, I don’t see us getting away with it.
One minute the wheels are coming off, and thank God they’re going straight. They passed the bus, some students saw them and yelled at the driver and he stopped. Otherwise, who knows where the bus would have ended up. Now, they started getting fired up. Not one, not two, three so far. Tomorrow what? Will the seats start to move out of place? Or worse, the brakes won’t work?
We started this piece sarcastically but, unfortunately, it is extremely serious. Tens of thousands of children are on buses every day. Tens of thousands of parents trust buses to transport them safely to school. It is a wonder that with all the grotesque things that are happening, parents have not yet rallied outside the Ministries of Transport and Education and threw stones at them. The reason, of course, is simply that, thankfully, we have not suffered any casualties. But that’s only due to luck. Just as it is by luck we still exist in this place, which is dominated by a bunch of frivolous and negligent types.
The matter, however, is extremely serious. Not only because of what is obvious. That it, that it concerns the safety of tens of thousands of children. It’s also the fact that while 570 buses were blocked from transporting students to schools yesterday and 6,000 stayed home, some of those buses took students on field trips. They have separate contracts with each school management explained the Transport Minister. Really? And are you done? Is it possible that buses are deemed unfit to take students to school but are allowed to take them on field trips? Was it that difficult to get the Minister of Education to agree to cancel the field trips? If we had a tragedy on a field trip like that, what would you be saying today?
The most serious thing, however, is the obvious responsibilities that exist. And no one – especially Mr Vafeades – has the right to pass them over lightly.
We must admit that the Minister for Transport at least seems to have good reflexes. He immediately grasps the anger of society and reacts quickly. He did so in the case of the bus that lost two wheels while in motion. He swiftly ordered an investigation. And if anything, he informed public opinion in a short time about the cause of the incident.
He acted with similar promptness in the case of the bus that caught fire recently. He put all buses which do not have an automatic fire extinguishing system out of service. And he demanded that all companies that have signed a public contract to install this system.
So far so good. Unfortunately, however, there are other serious aspects to the case. More serious ones, in fact. When Mr Vafeades explains how the system works with public contracts, when he explains that he had sent a letter to the companies since October asking them to install the fire extinguishing system on the buses, he may be giving the stamp of responsibility. However, there was a big issue behind all this.
Who inspected the buses to ensure that they did have the fire suppression system, Minister? Who licensed these 570 buses that do not have that system and yesterday you put them in limbo until they comply? To put it more correctly, has anyone checked them? Did someone put their stamp of approval on their registration? Either somebody checked them or they did not check them and either somebody licensed them or they did not license them, there is a huge issue of liability.
And we’re not going to allow anybody to skip over that. Because it involves human lives, especially children. It doesn’t matter if there were no victims. With such a criminal mentality, unfortunately, at some point, tragedy seems inevitable. And we want to prevent it.
We’re not satisfied with the investigation by your ministry’s three-man commission. It’s not good enough. Because it doesn’t inspire us with confidence, Mr. Vafeades. However well-intentioned you may be.
If there’s even one person in this government with a modicum of seriousness, s/he must demand an independent investigation. Insist on the punishment of anyone who may be guilty of this negligence. Period. For the moment, the responsibility lies with you personally, Mr Vafeades. Until you find the real culprit.
