A question of safety on buses

27 July 2016, 12:00AM

The bus crash at Tiavi last week, which has claimed one man’s life, has again raised questions about the safety of public transportation in Samoa. In particular, the issue of wooden versus ready-made buses has resurfaced. Is it not time to get rid of the wooden buses now? Why? Why not? Ilia Likou asked in today’s Street Talk and this is what people said:

Peneueta, 50, Siumu

I prefer wooden buses. It’s better for us to have the wooden ones because when it comes to accidents like the one last Friday, there you’ll see what I mean. People can easily escape anytime. I think that is the reason why many of the passengers survived the accident at Tiavi.

Toni Penisula, 37, Nu’usuatia

Wooden and readymade buses are both good. The problem here is the driver. They need to understand that they’re taking care of many lives every day. A good reminder to them as well that life is so precious, it’s not something you lose today and regain tomorrow. You cannot buy a life.

Pofito Semasi, 35, Vaie’e, 

I prefer wooden buses. I think that’s why many precious lives were saved from the accident at Tiavi. They were lucky to escape. Changes create problems, so looking at the bigger picture, we need to continue on using wooden buses.

Aso Matemate, 45, Siumu

I believe that buses are still safe. Drivers are careless and they need to be educated about taking care of people’s lives. I think we need ready-made buses and owners of buses in this area should look into bringing more ready-made ones for this particular route.

Eli Taualai, 36, Siumu

Both are same. But the ready-made ones would have killed so many people during that crash on Friday. The other important thing we need to consider is to educate drivers about responsible driving. I think they are very irresponsible and that’s where the problem is.

Fereti Tupuola, 46, Siumu

My understanding is that wooden buses are not safe for this Tiavi route anymore. Looking at the accident at Tiavi, the bus crashed and it smashed into pieces. We need ready-made buses and we also need to take a different route for safety instead of the route that goes via Tiavi.

27 July 2016, 12:00AM
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