Pirate buses rack up more highway casualties
PIRATE BUSES continue their deadly contribution to Panama’s grim highway traffic statistics with 178 road users injured (many seriously) and 22 killed by drivers of illegal public transport since 2010.
Pirate vehicles were involved in two separate accidents that sent five passengers to hospital on Sunday, May 29.
The first was at dawn when the pirate busito collided with an articulated truck on the Pan-American highway at La Chorrera. Firemen had to use the “jaws of life” (hydraulic clamp)s to rescue an injured passenger who was taken to the Chorrera Social Security (CSS) hospital.
Four people were injured at 11:00 am the same day , at the La Morelos roundabout in Tocumen, when the pirate mini-bus took the curve too quickly. The injured complained about the long wait for ambulances to caryy them to an hospital emergency.