A bad couple of days for image

The scenes which greeted journalists, motorists and passers-by as three Arriva buses crashed on Wednesday were like something out of a Hollywood movie.

To give a brief overview, one bus skidded and slammed into the Portes des Bombes archway in Floriana, causing injuries – some serious – to a number of passengers who were aboard. In the ensuing melee, two other buses crashed as they swerved to avoid the bus ahead of them that had slammed into the stone structure. Perhaps it is time to move the structure – though that is a debate for another day. Witnesses on board the bus that crashed into Portes des Bombes have said that the vehicle was travelling too fast to negotiate the bend – and that is why it skidded and hit the stonework. This is a complaint that many people make – Arriva buses either go far too fast, or far too slow. In fact, readers and journalists in this publishing house remarked that after the accident, a number of buses were seen moving at a snail’s pace, far slower than usual. The authorities will come up with their own report and match the forensics to eyewitness accounts, and we will not pass judgement, because experts we are not.

Instead, we will focus on the aftermath. The first thing we will remark about is the decision to ferry some of the slightly injured people to the local polyclinic on another Arriva bus. It turns out that there were only three ambulances available at the time and these were prioritised for use in ferrying the more seriously injured to hospital for treatment. Good decision – granted. But, we ask this, a far more pertinent question. What liability was the bus driver and indeed the company exposing themselves to in taking the ‘walking wounded’ to the clinic in a non-scheduled bus service? Paramedic crews are bound by strict regulations as to how patients are taken to hospital/clinics. So we ask a very serious question. What would have happened if one of these people’s injuries turned out to be a lot more serious than originally thought. What if someone collapsed in a fit? We also ask whether any nurses or paramedics went with the busload of people. Surely, this is not the way to do things.

We also point fingers at the authorities for the crazy and haphazard traffic management after the accident took place. By all accounts, the chaos that ensued beggared belief with people leaving Valletta stuck sitting in traffic for more than an hour as they tried to leave the capital after a day’s work. Are our police really that incapable of coming up with an emergency plan to divert traffic through another route and without the shenanigans that accompanied Wednesday’s incident?

In closing, we will also refer to another incident which took place yesterday when a fire broke out (presumably related to the brake system). One of our reporters headed to the scene and after the fire was put out, the driver was asked to drive the bus to the repair depot. This is out of order and possibly in breach of health and safety regulations. The bus just had a fire on it, and the driver was asked to get back in it and drive it. What kind of order is that? It’s been a tough couple of days for Arriva and signs of strain are showing. A crash is a crash, granted. But, it is how the fallout is dealt with that is more important.