March 15 last hurrah for diablos rojos

PANAMA’S Diablos Rojos, the noisy, polluting used US school buses that have served the city for decades will be gone from the street by mid-month.

During their time they have served a magnet for camera clicking tourists, but on the road have been responsible or hundreds of deaths collisions and injuries as drivers race each other to pick up fares. Many are poorly serviced and frequent breakdowns can be seen across the city. They are notorious pollutors, with most emitting clouds of black smoke as they change gear to climb slopes or accelerate. They lose further credibility by continuing to blast out the driver’s favorite music although the practice was banned by the previous government and many are minus signal and brake lights, and sometimes headlights.
After decommissioning, the buses will head for the diablo graveyard in Panama Pacifico, where they will await sale as scrap.
They will all be replaced by air conditioned Metro buses manufactured by Volvo and driven by uniformed drivers who earn a monthly bonus if they are not involved in incidents. Many of the drivers have introduced new driving standards, but many of them learned their original driving “skills” behind the wheel and there are increasing signs of speeding, no signals and the tendency of some to race down the outside line, far away from the curbside.
There have been reports that a large number of drivers do double duty as taxi drivers, extending their working day past safety levels.
Robert Moreno, the latest in a long line of directors of the Transit Authority (ATTT), Roberto Moreno , said on Sunday,March 3 that on March 15 no diablos rojos should be circulating..
Tthe owners of the buses have until March 11 to submit the necessary documents to enable them to get the compensation money. An estimated 703 buses will be compensated.
The ATTT has $20 million to end the era of the "Red Devils" and make way for Metro Bus, which began operations in 2010.
With this step, Moreno said, "the government of President Ricardo Martinelli, has fulfilled another campaign promise”