Trotro horror
It jiggled and we jiggled along, it sang screeching dirges and we blocked our ears each drenched in his or her own thoughts.
The seat bumped against our butts yet we ignored it. A few complained but the god of the wheel blurted out a long profile of the vehicle and how long it’s been on the road silencing anyone who dared make an issue of it.
A moment later, pieces of earthen metals teamed up against us and I could hear wails from the others.
It shot up from top so reflexively I lowered my head in between the seats but its sharp edges threatened blindness and the sight of a dripping blood and a detached ear struck me. All the while, everything else was jiggling amidst spills of blood. The sliding door flew past in a flash and I felt the sides warping in to crash us.
To my left was a lady and a guy pierced on every side by the thrust of the blades. The wicked strip clang to my ribs and I could see the last of me gush out but too weak to free myself from the grip.
I couldn’t yell, I couldn’t feel my being and all that I heard was a baby below the seats with the umbilical hanging from its mum. In that frightful scene a new life was birthed and earthed.
Mate bus stop wai!! A young lady yelled at the bus conductor. It was then that I became conscious of my surrounding smiling to myself after my imagination produced a horror movie.
But as the mate slid the door open for the lady to alight I understood why the movie began in the first place.
The 70’s Ford-transit trotro I sat in had a rusted interior with worn out seats. Everything in the car was making so much noise.
We all jostled on our seat when the vehicle moved over a speed ramp.
Before I started working at Ghana News Agency I never thought I will constantly commute in such buses.
I got to the station and realised that those were the only buses that went in my direction.
At least I always checked to see if a bus is insured before I board it. Being a Ghanaian and a Christian I mutter “It is God who protects us,” before I board a bus.
It is okay if we can’t fix our seat belts in a public transport but the condition of some commercial buses in Ghana are terrible.
You board the bus with a 50 per cent assurance that you may not survive if the bus should be involved in an accident.
A number of people have had experiences of their clothes getting torn because a tip of a metal hooked it in a bus.
Some go away with small cuts while boarding or alighting from a vehicle. The rusted parts of the vehicle could give tetanus.
The National Road Safety Commission’s (NRSC) is tasked to develop and promote road safety activities in Ghana.
It also coordinates policies related to that. Is the NRSC checking the road worthiness of buses?
Act 569 of 1999 gives the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) an authority status to license drivers and vehicles and regulate them.
The DVLA is mandated to ensure that the condition of a motor vehicle is such that its use on the road would not involve a danger or injury to any person or damage to property.
“All vehicles must be physically inspected before roadworthy certification. Examination shall be conducted every six months in respect of commercial vehicles and once every year in respect of private vehicles.
Is the DVLA living to its mandate?
By Caroline Pomayie
Source: GNA