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Candles and flowers at the scene of the fatal bus fire, not far from the Templo Hosanna Evangelical church. Photo by Eric Jackson

 Criminal charges, Transito shakeup

Bus fire prompts raucous but limited reaction

by Eric Jackson, mainly from other media

An October 23 bus fire that took the lives of four children and 14 adults has prompted arrest orders against the bus's owner and driver and a mechanic who worked on the vehicle and the Transito director's transfer to another job. Also in the wake of the tragedy traffic cops have increased inspections and taken a number of buses off the road, which first caused a one-day metro bus drivers' strike and afterwards has caused acute overcrowding on those metro area buses remaining in service.

Police forensic examiners say that the fire was caused by a short-circuit in a wire to a compressor in the bus's air conditioning system, which they say was caused by the unsafe and illegal bypass of a fuse box in a lazily done repair job. Other safety problems that contributed to the deaths, however, do not seem to be of concern to government officials.

The chemical coolant used in the air conditioning system, for example, is not commonly used in motor vehicles precisely because it's flammable and if contained in a certain way explosive. When the fire broke out there was a rush to the back of the bus toward a fire escape that was not there. Theoretically there was a fire escape on one of the side windows, but because of the way that seats were installed this was for all practical purposes blocked.

At a vigil at the accident scene attended by a small group of labor activists, friends and relatives of the victims and people from several religious denominations, complaints were voiced about the fact that this country allows the importation and sale of buses without adequate emergency escapes and with exploding air conditioning systems, and also that this Dina-brand bus in particular was purchased with a loan from the state-owned Banco Nacional de Panama. Others noted that the economics of public transportation as it is now organized virtually ensures that proper maintenance will be neglected.

From government officials and the mainstream media the brunt of the criticism was on the bus driver, who had a history of 92 tickets, and the bus syndicates whose members parked their vehicles due to the inspection crackdown. In these circles and in conversations among the broader public, the word "mafia" was frequently used to describe the syndicates of bus owner/drivers.

Two days into the crisis President Torrijos replaced Land Transportation and Transit Authority (ATTT) director Agelino Harris on an interim basis with Vice Minister of Government and Justice Severino Mejía.

Harris was shifted to another post from which he will continue a government plan to put most of the metro bus drivers out of business by granting an exclusive bus concession to one or more companies that will run large "articulated" buses on the major routes. That plan, based on changes implemented a few years ago in Bogota, Colombia, is touted as part of a solution to the capital's traffic congestion and safety problems. The bus syndicates, as one might imagine, are not happy about that plan.