Rural school buses reliable, Transport Minister insists

 

Transport Minister Daryl Vaz says the ministry is continuing its testing of the buses brought in for the Rural School Bus Programme.

 

Speaking on Radio Jamaica's Hotline on Thursday, Minister Vaz insisted that the buses are reliable despite recent videos which showed at least two of them with blown out tyres and others involved in crashes.

 

"We have 122 routes. We did testing on Monday and Tuesday and we are doing testing today of close to 40 routes. So we are averaging 30-odd routes a day in the different parishes. On Monday we had two incidents, one on Hope Road and one at the roundabout at Williamsfield where we had a tyre failure. Those are the only two issues that we have had with tyres for the week. We had none on Tuesday and so far...we have had none today. 

 

"The fact of the matter is that we are testing almost 60 buses, so to have two issues of tyres - for whatever reason, whether it hit a pothole or whatever the case is - it did not prevent the testing from continuing, which is the most important part," he said, also acknowledging that there were "one or two minor road accidents". 

 

Mr. Vaz said arrangements have been made to replace the tyres of the entire fleet.

 

"I am expecting that the tyres will start to be installed between today and weekend, and what we have done is we have engaged a tyre company in Jamaica to set up a tyre-changing machine at Lyndhurst Road at JUTC, and he has estimated that it will take us a week and a half to get all the tyres on the buses changed," he told Hotline host Emily Shields. 

 

"So what I have done is put in place a mechanism through a local tyre dealer who has branches all over Jamaica to respond if there is an issue immediately rather than having JUTC having to respond from out of Kingston. So we have a contingency that if there is an issue with a tyre, we have tyres and we have the ability to change the tyre in short order. But it doesn't stop...the testing from continuing," the minister added.

 

The parliamentary opposition has accused the Minister of rushing to include the buses in its school bus programme despite safety concerns about the age of the units and their suitability for narrow, rural roads.