Dear Editor,

I have written to your valuable newspaper before about the conduct of the drivers of vehicles commonly referred to as coaster buses. However, I must express my great concern that if something is not done about the driving, then I am afraid that there will be more and more tragic road accidents.

Last week as I was leaving a supermarket, I looked up and saw three buses. When they passed by me they could not have been going less than 80 miles per hour in the height of holiday traffic.

I related the incident to a friend who told me of an experience she had the evening before on a coaster bus that plies between Half-Way-Tree and Spanish Town.

She said she boarded the bus in Half-Way-Tree and the driver turned from Eastwood Park Road on to Westminster Road where her life-threatening experience started.

The driver, at breakneck speed, overtook a line of vehicles on the very busy

thoroughfare, sometimes using the sidewalks to get past other vehicles. But my friend was in for the shock of her life because when she scolded the driver for reckless driving he replied, “A suh coasta bus drive, suh if yuh cyaan tek it come affa mi bus”.

Worse was yet to come because another passenger shouted to the driver, “Let aff di ooman.”

My friend was undaunted, however, and defiantly told the driver she was not going to come off the bus.

She said he continued driving recklessly down Washington Boulevard and when the bus got to somewhere outside of Ferry, much to her delight the bus was signalled to stop by a policeman.

As he disembarked, some of the passengers shouted to him, “Gi di police bwoy a rum money.”

My friend said the driver went to the policeman and handed him something. She said she could not see what it was, but to her astonishment when he drove off he was driving even faster than before and when he got to the entrance to the highway the policeman who was behind him blew his horn in a friendly gesture.

I might add that the exchanges between herself and the driver during the entire journey cannot be repeated because they were laced with indecency and threats of the filthiest order.

Ken Spencer

PO Box 537

Kingston 8