This morning around 6:30, Ladyville commuters had a major scare after the Central Transit bus they were on started emitting huge clouds of smoke inside the bus, leading commuters to believe that it had caught on fire.
It happened around mile 2 and a half on the Philip Goldson Highway and one commuter said that it's the last straw for her. Freelance court reporter Anita Nembherd explained that they were left to fend for themselves with no assistance from the bus driver or conductor, and that now, she will be walking to the roadside to catch a bus.
Anita Nembherd, Commuter
"We were heading from Ladyville, we came from the Vista Del Mar area on like the 6:15 bus this morning and a little after passing DK, before Travelers, I just saw the driver grab the brakes and stopped. We're on a full bus so people in the isle started to rush to the front and then we realized - well, I started to see smoke in the front and the driver nor the conductor are telling us anything. In no time I saw people starting to come off because i heard someone say the bus is on fire. I wasn't seeing any fire, all I saw was smoke and I just didn't feel right, something wasn't right. And then it's like everything went on standstill, I was seeing people go but they're going in slow motion and no one was coming off the bus fast enough. so I tried not to panic, my daughter said, mommy, let's go through the window, because a man said open the window. When I looked at the window, some of them can't even open, there's a lot of hazards on those buses. And then when I looked I saw the conductor and the driver already off the bus. They haven't said anything to us yet, we had to act on our own. And I'm glad that a lot of people didn't panic but we were frightened, it was crazy. I didn't expect something like that on a bus and they were not telling us what was happening."
"Well I have to go back up today. Vista Del Mar, most of us don't want to walk in but I have two feet and I have a choice now, I have to choose if I want to be unsafe on a bus or just do the walk. It's like ten minutes if you really look at it to walk in and walk back out tomorrow and catch a bus from the roadside. I wish that the people in authority would also look at the service they are giving us. We went from grace to grass and we're asking the Transport Minister and everybody in the Transport Department to look at the people in Ladyville because we deserve better because we don't have to stand for it. Like I always tell people, if all of us boycott these buses they don't have a service. We have to work together, we have to coexist and we're not coexisting right now, we're taking everything they're giving us."
We did speak to the CEO for the Ministry of Transport Chester Williams who told us he is aware of it and was discussing it with the Chief Transport Officer.
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