News
Private bus crews waive the rules
Around 15,000 buses enter Colombo daily. A majority of them are private buses. Apart from overcrowding, failing to issue tickets and speeding, private buses also violate the fundamental rule of picking up and dropping commuters off only at bus stops.
Irrespective of whether they be outstation or city buses all of them pass through Pettah and Fort in Colombo. Sadly the traffic police do not seem to have noticed the manner in which these vehicles blatantly violate the most fundamental of road rules.
“Some buses stop at zebra crossings in the hope of picking up passengers, but the practice often causes inconvenience to other motorists.
“The manner in which bus conductors tend to pick passengers in the middle of the road or push them as they alight, is absolutely frightening” said Ajith Nandakumara, a passenger who walks past Bastian Mawatha in Pettah daily. What is more unfortunate is that passengers promote this dangerous practice by running and getting into moving buses in the middle of the road, said Renuka Kumari who is also a commuter.
Our cameraman captured this picture of a young woman rushing to the middle of the road and clambering into a bus
Passengers rush to enter a bus which had stopped at a pedestrian crossing