Metrobus MD bemoans aging buses & lack of drivers’ skills

From Penwell Dlamini, RDM News Wire

The managing director of Johannesburg’s Metrobus service, Mavela Dlamini, has laid bare the poor conditions of buses‚ poor management and lack of drivers’ skills improvement troubling the company.

Photo taken from Twitter of a recent crash between two Metro buses in rose bank, central Johannesburg. Three people died in the accident, including a pregnant woman.
Photo taken from Twitter of a recent crash between two Metro buses in Rosebank, central Johannesburg. Three people died in the accident, including a pregnant woman.

Dlamini told reporters today that the company was struggling to maintain its aging bus fleet. Metrobus has 412 buses. About 270 of them are over 10 years old and 11 of them are 20 years and older. The company has 596 drivers with the average driver 42 years old.

A series of accident have marred the company’s record in the past few years.

In July last year‚ a Metrobus broke down on the side of the road in Randburg. The driver left the bus unattended, took another bus and returned to the depot. A few minutes later‚ the bus rolled down the road and crashed into a factory‚ killing four people. The driver was taken to a disciplinary process and he was cleared.

In April a bus headed to Johannesburg hit a barrier line‚ veered off and then hit a stationary bus from which a passenger was disembarking. Three people were killed during the collision and 66 were injured.

“These kind of incidents illustrates the need to get skills improvement programme‚” Dlamini said.

Dlamini also announced that the company would be spending R500-million on buying 150 new buses, the first of which will be arrive next month.

Metrobus will also be introducing new training for drivers‚ a sobriety test and is planning on acquiring speed governors to prevent accidents on the roads.

 

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