San Martin/Ortega y Gasset guagua tragedy

arturo

Bronze
Mar 14, 2002
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This one broke my heart. I only hope some good comes out of it in the form of the new AMET chief going after these ignorant and selfish criminals, as he has been talking about doing. Their utter lack of regard for safety is worse than the power outages and violent crime because, unlike those unpleasant aspects of life in the country, it is constant.

The part that really bothered me is that the poor woman had not been given time to take a seat. We've all seen the drivers take off before passengers have even fully boarded the vehicles, with one foot still on the sidewalk. The drivers sometimes don't bother checking, they just floor it so they can't beat their fellow union member to the next group of desparate passengers.

Worse still are the "voladores," the mini van drivers who make the guagua drivers seem like safety instructors by comparison. Those guys have routes like Guachupita/Gualey or Isabel Aguiar in Herrera, it's death on wheels.

It's true what some of the pundits have been saying. The transport union members (a.k.a. the country's owners) opearte with virtual impunity, and they are no angels.
 

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
17,850
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They are "animales con ropa". Reading that news story yesterday seriously upset me. Over the weekend we were driving in the Zona Universitaria area and were almost pushed off the road by a guagua desperately trying to overtake us, driving wildly at high speed (this is a residential area) with his high beams on.
 

Squat

Tropical geek in Las Terrenas
Jan 1, 2002
2,239
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Those guagua drivers are simply too dump & stupid ! A bunch of mean idiots... There's not much to be done, as those big unions like Fenatrano are very powerful. I guess shooting the driver "execution style" would send a strong message, apart from such an extreme action, I don't know...
 

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
17,850
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Tuesday's DR1 news, based on a report in Monday's El Nacional:

Tragic bus accident
A 36-year old bioanalyst, Antonia Castro Vargas, who was on her way to work from her home in Villa Mella, was thrown from a public commuter bus and died instantly of severe head injuries at 6:30am yesterday. The accident took place at the corner of San Martin and Ortega y Gasset Avenues, as reported in El Nacional. The woman had just boarded the bus and had not had time to take her seat when the crash occurred. Castro was carrying RD$35, a credit card, makeup, perfume and two photographs. The front of the bus was completely destroyed.
The accident has caused outrage as fellow passengers reported that the bus driver was racing another Fenatrano bus along the route. His reckless driving led him to cross a red light, and then crash into a car, finally coming to a halt at a lamppost.
The car passengers escaped injury thanks to functioning airbags. Sister Isaura Martinez, of the Marillac School located at the site of the accident, said that if it had occurred a little later it would have caused a larger-scale tragedy because of the large number of people who congregate near the entrance of the school. She told El Nacional that the accident was a crime because bus drivers "show an incredible lack of respect for life". She complained that AMET officers were ineffectual in confronting this behavior. El Nacional says the comment of the day was AMET agents and their alleged permissiveness towards public transport vehicle drivers.
The new director of AMET, General Latif Miguel Mahfoud Rodriguez said this accident is a criminal act. He instructed agents to act drastically against drivers that cross a red light, as reported in the Listin Diario.
 

SamanaJon

New member
Jun 20, 2007
193
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SOP for AMET

I hope AMET does something about drivers crossing the red lights.


Shameful tradgedy.. Regarding AMET doing somethng about "comiendo la luz roja", they already do.....they take $500 pesos from you and let you proceed as if nothing happened, nice traffic control, huh!