Bus Company Threatens To Stop Service
‘If the attacks on the buses continue I might stop the services.’
Shore Buses Limited is considering stoppage of bus services on the Suva-Qauia route if attacks on its buses continue. Aman Singh, the company’s operations manager, said: “If the attacks on the buses continue I might stop the services.”
Mr Singh renewed his warning to stop bus services to certain areas in Lami after one of his buses was attacked on Wednesday night in Qauia, outside Lami. He said the matter was reported to the Police.
For the Qauia route, the bus services commence at 6am and end at 10.45pm. The company schedules a bus trip every 15 minutes. It works out to over 60 trips a day.
“This is the third incident to happen in fewer than the three weeks. I don’t know why it is happening. I wish the authorities could push harder and catch the people who are damaging our bus,” Mr Singh said.
He said he was concerned about the safety of passengers and drivers. Mr Singh claimed the culprits usually hid in bushes from where they threw stones at buses.
He said the incidents happened just before dark at 5.30pm to 7.30pm. In Wednesday’s incident, it was fortunate that the driver quickly moved the bus. Otherwise, passengers would have been hurt, he said.
“My driver could not see who was stoning the bus. The only thing he saw was stones being thrown at the bus. So he moved the bus quickly otherwise the stones could have hit the screen and passengers got hurt,” Mr Singh said.
He said his drivers were afraid to drive on the route to Qauia and had requested that we place an extra man on the bus as a security guard. “This bus which got stoned is Indonesian made,” he said.
“To repair it and have it repainted will cost around $2000 because the paint we use on it is different from other buses.”
Police investigations are continuing.