Transport Company Suspended
Maputo, 20 Dec (AIM) – The Mozambican Transport Ministry has suspended the activities of the company Transportadores Ideal, while an inquiry is underway to determine the safety conditions under which the company operates.
The suspension, which took effect on Monday, is due to the discoveries made by a multi-sector inspection team which stopped one of the company’s buses last Thursday in the central city of Chimoio.
The team found that the Chinese made bus was transporting passengers in a deplorable condition. The acceleration system had broken down to such an extent, said a press release from the Ministry, “that the driver had chosen to improvise a rope so that another person could accelerate the vehicle in his stead, endangering the safety of passengers and other road users”.
Such an ad-hoc procedure “is contrary to the rules of passenger transport”, and the bus driver was immediately suspended.
The company’s behaviour, says the release, is “an affront to the efforts of the government and society, in general, which aim to reduce the rates of traffic accidents involving passenger vehicles, especially during this festive season”.
The Ministry called for compliance with the terms and conditions of the licensing of public passenger transport activity, such as observance of crew numbers, compliance with rest time and drivers’ qualifications, prohibition of the consumption of alcohol, checks on the technical condition of vehicles, among other obligations of operators and crews.
“We will continue to apply bolder measures against offenders in order to protect the lives of passengers and other road users”, stressed the Ministry document.
(AIM)
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