DRIVING IN DANGER
Latest west Kingston gang war means more risks for bus operators
THE LATEST flare-up of gang violence in sections of west Kingston has left some private bus operators cowering even as they brave the almost daily shoot-outs to deliver a well-needed service.
For the first three months of this year, 10 persons were killed in the area, down from 13 over the corresponding period last year, while 24 shootings were recorded by the police, a 118 per cent increase over last year.
That is the area where private bus operators hit the roads usually before sunrise most days, while only a few will remain in downtown Kingston after dark.
For Maurice Freckleton, it is a challenge driving his bus through some of Kingston’s most volatile communities along Spanish Town Road.
“How you mean if me ’fraid? Me ’fraid, yes, but guess what, money have to make because the bills have to pay,” said Freckleton, who operates the Waterhouse to downtown Kingston route.
At 8 p.m. last Wednesday, Freckleton was seen sitting in his vehicle at the bus terminus in Waterhouse, waiting on passengers for a return trip to downtown Kingston.
He told our news team that once he reached downtown he would fill his gas tank for the other day, before waiting at the eerie west Kingston transportation centre for any straggling commuter.
“But you have to know who to stop for.
Is not everybody you stop and pick up at road,” said Freckleton, as he pointed to the shooting of a little girl by warring thugs in the area earlier that day.
“Is a stray shot hit her, she was going to buy food and get shot. That can happen to any of us anytime. We don’t know when but we can’t let certain things limit you.”
WATCHING YOUR BACK
According to Freckleton, despite competing for passengers, the bus operators look out for each other on the dangerous streets.
“Sometimes a man will say ‘no, me don’t like how the road feel’ and we will hear him,” added Freckleton, as he called for more police presence during the night-time hours.
But last Thursday, head of the West Kingston Police Division, Superintendent Howard Chambers, said it was the first that the operators’ complaints had come to his ears.
According to Chambers, police units are on the streets of the community on a 24-hour basis as part of the general crime-fighting efforts.
“I have had no reports like that. The area is as usual, calm but tense. But I don’t see any issues with the passengers, people are taking their taxi and their buses to anywhere they want to,” he said.
Shortly after 8:40 p.m. last Wednesday, a helicopter was seen hovering in the area with its searchlight shining on Pechon Street as a dog barked in the distance.
But there was no visible police presence for the more than 60 minutes that our news team visited and the few pedestrians who remained downtown walked briskly pass the dark alleys and lanes.
VERY UNSAFE FOR FEMALES
Impatiently, Marlon Walters stood among a handful of passengers, waiting on a minibus to Seaview Gardens.
“To be honest, it is a bit unsafe and it needs more policing efforts, especially because of the robberies and so on,” said Walters.
“But I think it is worse for the females; a lot of the times you see the females come down here and wait, can’t get anything, and just head up back to Parade to try get something to go to Three Miles,” added Walters.
‘Chup Chup’, who has been selling clothes downtown for 20 years, said he has become immune to the gang rivalries over the years. He, too, is among the late travellers from downtown Kingston each night.
“Is a whole heap of killings me witness, and is like me used to it. Me deh right here so and a man walk up and kill a man right in front of me and walk away,” said Chup Chup.
“Is nuff time me family them say them afraid things happen to me downtown and me understand what them saying, but it don’t really trouble me,” he added.
AN INITIATIVE launched by the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) to help private bus operators collect full fares from unruly passengers in some of the toughest communities in the Corporate Area has seemingly fizzled and the busmen are being hard hit.
The initiative was implemented primarily on the Seaview Gardens and the Waterhouse House to downtown Kingston routes by the JUTC.
Radcliffe Lewis, head of the JUTC’s Franchise Protection Unit, had indicated that the initiative involved inspectors from the state-owned bus company boarding the private buses in the vicinity of the Horizon Adult Remand Centre on Spanish Town Road and demanding that passengers either pay their full fare of $100 or continue their journey on foot.
But last week, several bus drivers and conductors complained that the inspectors were not out in force as they once were, and now unruly and often violent passengers are refusing to pay their fares.
SHORTENED FARES
“Every time the bus full we should be collecting about $1,700 or $1,800 a trip, but sometimes when the bus full and we have children, we collect like a $1,100 or $1,000,” said Michael Hemmings, a conductor of 10 years on the Seaview Gardens route.
“But when we work it out now we don’t make enough for the boss to be satisfied but we try to show him the little shortfalls. Sometimes the boss will work with it still, but other times is we suffer,” said Hemmings, as he explained that sometimes his boss does not pay him because these non-paying passengers bite into the earnings of the bus.
“It must impact my pay. The boss tells us that him want $10,000 but the people them refuse to pay so much, and at the end of the day we bring him $8,000. It is we who have to do without pay just to keep our jobs,” said bus driver Barrington Welsh.
“My bus seated to carry about 16 passengers
and if they pay their $100 that would be $1,600, but right now, you carry a full load come town from Waterhouse, you let off and take up, you just a make about $700 or $800, and that can’t work,” added Kedron Marriott, the driver of a minibus plying the Waterhouse to downtown route.
“It needs to be more consistent. They (JUTC inspectors) are doing it in the mornings but they should also try to do it in the afternoons and at different times in the evenings when people still don’t
want to pay their fares, just like in the mornings,” declared Maurice Freckleton, another Waterhouse bus driver.
STUBBORN ROUTE
“This is a very stubborn route. People will pay their $100 when they see the inspector them, but as soon as they are not there they come with $30, $40, $50, $60, any money. We need to get rid of that,” said Barrington Welsh, another bus operator.
The bus operators claimed that it has
been more than a week since the JUTC has discontinued its initiative, but Lewis countered that the operation is being staggered because of the limited resources available to the team.
“Since this week, we have not done anything but we were out there last week,” Lewis told The Sunday Gleaner late last week.
“It can’t be done on a daily basis but we have about three or four days designated
for them. Mondays and Fridays we are definitely out there because those are the busier days,” added Lewis as he expressed sympathy with the bus operators.
“That can definitely impact the owner’s viability, his ability to pay the road fees, and also his ability to pay his drivers and conductors.”