Commentary

Dangerous rides

By FRANCINE BLACK, Staff Reporter

LATELY I HAD an experience which caused me to reflect on the safety of the public transportation system in Jamaica and whether it could possibly improve.

A few weeks ago I was riding in a Jamaica Urban Transit Corporation (JUTC) bus from downtown Kingston to Half-Way Tree, St. Andrew, with a friend. As the bus made its way up Slipe Pen Road towards Cross Roads all the passengers were startled by a sudden explosion. Thinking the sounds were gunshots, my friend and I ducked and scanned the bus quickly for somewhere to hide in anticipation of the next explosion.

However after few seconds, the second explosion did not come and we slowly raised our heads turning to the back of the bus to see what had happened. We saw shattered glass and persons carefully removed pieces of glass from their clothes.

After careful analysis we realised that someone walking along the road threw a glass bottle at the bus. The bottle went through the door breaking the glass before hitting a rail inside the bus and shattering above our heads. Luckily no one was seriously hurt.

Get a car

I later told a friend about the incident and he told me that it was incidents like these which led him to hurriedly purchase a car. He said on several occasions he has been on his way to work in a JUTC bus when the bus is stoned or attacked by disgruntled passengers for various reasons.

But its not only the JUTC buses which are being attacked, but news reports in the Christmas season spoke of a bus robbery gone wrong which saw two people being shot, one fatally.

Another report in THE STAR spoke of the close to 30 persons who reported being robbed on coasters plying the route from Cross Roads to downtown last year.

It is obvious that to be a bus driver, bus conductor, taxi driver or work in public transportation, one also needs to be trained in self defence, martial arts or any of the other arts used to protect oneself and others.

I wonder what goes through the minds of the persons who commit these frightening acts. Most of the people who take public transport are usually forced to do so, because it is the affordable means of travelling for them. It cannot be good for them to also be worrying about being robbed or attacked while travelling. It also cannot be healthy for the people in the public transport system to be put through traumatic instances like these everyday. It definitely increases their stress levels.

I must say I have a new found respect for those persons in our public transportation system who risk their lives everyday to get us to our destinations as safely as possible. Nuff Respect.

E-mail me at francineblack@lycos.com