A minibus with passengers on board, including school children, crashed into a house at Pavee, Castries, on Tuesday at about 4:00 pm.
According to eyewitnesses, some of the passengers sustained injuries that appeared minor.
And a grandmother in her eighties who was in the house on Pavee Road when the accident happened was not in her usual spot where the bus hit.
“Thank God she was watching her favourite television programme inside,” the woman’s relieved grandson, who was also in the house, told St. Lucia Times.
Nevertheless, the grandson said the incident had left her a little shaken.
The bus driver recalled hearing a noise in his vehicle.
” All I try put it in first gear, put it in second gear, put it in reverse -nothing,” he told St. Lucia Times.
The driver blamed brake failure for the incident and praised God that there were no fatalities.
Eyewitnesses reported that the Saint Lucia Fire Service (SLFS) responded with a fire truck and two ambulances.
The eyewitnesses said emergency responders were assessing the bus passengers while police officers conducted an investigation.
On May 7, a 47-year-old female pedestrian died in hospital one week after a minibus struck her while descending Barnard Hill in Castries.
Instead of completing a right turn into Castries, the bus ran into another vehicle, hit the woman and struck a perimeter wall.
Brake failure was blamed for the incident.
Two incidents like this in a matter of weeks. Me thinks that bus drivers aren’t servicing their vehicle properly to keep cost down. Corner cutting usually happens when people have money worries. Do that math.
I’d say that government needs to put a law in place to have public service vehicles inspected more than once a year (I know the once a year one is also a joke) to avoid this becoming a further catastrophe down the line.
The vehicles being sold to third world countries like st Lucia are defective. The government is taking no action on buyers and sellers or cracking down on vehicle maintenance
We Thank God No fatalities indeed Smh check yall buses drivers dsmn it!
These drivers seriously need to maintain and service their buses. All they care about is taking the people’s money and not servicing their vehicle.
With the poor road conditions we have greater wear and tear on those vehicles. It’s sad that the drivers cannot afford the price of maintenance with how costly it has become. Additionally, after repairs of one thing another thing breaks. Poor jab, we may expect more of these types of accidents and more frequently.
SMH. If a yute makes an accident or there is an accident on the Highway. All u hear from the Authorities is DRIVE WITH DUE CARE AND ATTENTION and SPEEDING. Although the majority of our accidents are fender benders at slow driving speeds. But they say nothing to condemn those Bus Drivers and Owners. They will gv them rebate, price hikes and whatever they ask for all in the name of V….. SMH. HERE WE HAVE AN ISSUE IT IS TIME FOR THE AUTHORITIES TO ADDRESS IT. SMH
These greedy bus drivers condemning their brakes to cut cost and people life in danger. Racing all day to cut each other throat for a dollar. Bald tyres n all. Some scratching the bald tyres to make more tread on the tyres.
We have been importing vehicles forever so stop making excuses for our drivers. Some are reckless and most do not take care of the buses. I was on a bus and the seats were so dirty with scum and there was a strong smell of diesel in the bus, the springs of the seat were pooping up under our butts. I mentioned that to the driver and he barked:
1. Y’all are the ones mashing up the F seats
2. His bus is on the road everyday because he has to make a bread so he doesn’t have time to clean it
3. His dirty language was as foul as his body odor and bad breath so I kindly asked him to stop, paid him, wished him a nice day and went on my merry way and boarded a other bus.
I hope his insurance covers such damages because we know how insurances companies operate. Thank God no one got hurt. Granny take your tumeric and ginger to keep your pressure down. God bless
Owners of these buses should pay a hefty fine – just to send a strong message home. Sorry for that shake up Grand-ma, your good prayers worked wonders for you, ‘Be BLESSED’.
It’s time the authorities get serious about road safety and the preservation of life in Saint Lucia. Too many accidents are happening that could have been avoided with more intense scrutiny on vehicle safety and maintenance. Again, it shows how a non progressive society sleeps its way to destruction by not learning the lessons from serious incidents like this. It’s just a matter of time when this becomes a great and mighty tragedy.
Hope d transport inspectors do a in detail job on that bus to find out what is the true cause of that acccident