By IKENNA ASOMBA

Barely six years, after the Lagos State Government, through its regulatory agency, the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority, LAMATA, introduced the Bus Rapid Transit System, BRT, in collaboration with some operators, public outcry has continued to greet the rising catalog of accidents involving the BRT buses, which have claimed several lives, leaving most victims and passengers on board with various degrees of injuries.

Some of BRT Buses put on fire by army of the killing one of them by BRT Driver at Palmgrove, bus-stop on Friday 4-7-2014, PHOTO; Kehinde Gbadamosi

The bitter taste left by   rampaging soldiers numbering over 100, last Friday, following an accident at Palmgrove area, involving a BRT bus, which purportedly claimed the life of an unnamed soldier was yet to heal, when last Sunday, another BRT bus reportedly killed three people on a motorcycle, who were being chased by policemen attached to the Rapid Response Squad, RRS, at Awoyaya bus stop along Lekki-Epe Expressway , Lagos.

BRT lanes and operations

Within the Lagos metropolis, the BRT began operation on March 24, 2008 and currently plies at least 50 routes .

The BRT which runs a 16-hour-operations from 6.00am to 10.00 pm currently uses over 220 buses to move more than 200,000 passengers daily, with two operators- LAGBUS, an Asset Management Company owned by the State government, operating the red buses and the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, First BRT Co-operative Society operating the blue buses.

The buses are built to accommodate 46 sitting passengers and 36 standing, but currently, this has been abused by operators.

Safety of lives

When the Lagos State government placed a ban on operators of 911 commercial buses, popular called ‘Molue’ from plying Lagos Island and the three bridges linking mainland to the Island, the Managing Director of LAMATA, Dr. Dayo Mobereola had assured that the agency was injecting more BRT buses “in order to ensure the safety of lives on our roads, as well as cushioning the effect of the banned 911 commercial yellow buses, among other factors.”

But with the recurring accidents involving these BRT buses, many residents are beginning to raise an eyebrow over the assurance of safety of lives.

Some recent accidents involving BRT buses

October 2, 2012

A red LAGBUS was involved in an accident at Marina, Lagos, when its driver in a bid to avoid collision with another BRT bus which abruptly entered its route, swerved and hit a wall. Many passengers were fatally wounded in that crash.

January 10, 2013

In the morning of this day, a BRT bus and a saloon car were involved in an accident at the Ikotun area of Lagos. The driver of the car and two others were seriously injured and were rushed to a nearby hospital.

September 5, 2013

A LAGBUS, with registration number, Lagos XU998 AAA, at about 2:15pm on this day, crashed into four stationary vehicles parked under the Carter Bridge, at Ebute Ero area of the state.

Eyewitnesses said the bus, which was carrying passengers, was heading towards Leventis, on Lagos Island.

The brakes of the bus, said to be on top speed, failed and it skidded off the road, dragging a pedestrian, identified simply as Francis, under a parked car by the roadside. The bus then crashed into four other cars as the driver tried to regain control of it.

July 4, 2014

An unnamed soldier was allegedly knocked down by the BRT bus driver while riding a motor bike on the exclusive BRT lane at the Palmgrove area of Lagos.

Irked by the sad incident, it was said that soldiers numbering over 100, dressed in combat fatigue and wielding AK47 assault rifles, stormed the Palmgrove-Onipanu axis along the Ikorodu road, and allegedly went on a destructive rampage setting fire on at least five BRT buses and damaging three others valued at N100 million. The soldiers were said to have also beaten up the BRT bus drivers and passengers who try to obstruct them.

July 6, 2014

Commuters on the Lekki-Epe expressway were held up in traffic for three hours after hoodlums blocked incoming vehicles to Lagos following an accident involving a BRT bus that killed three people.

It was said that an okada rider and his two passengers twho were running away from policemen were all killed when they got hit by an on-coming BRT bus at the Awoyaya vicinity, just before Mayfair Gardens.

The blame game

Following Friday’s accident, Hon. Bisi Yusuf, the Chairman, Committee on Transportation, Commerce and Industry, at the Lagos State House of Assembly, lamented that most BRT drivers are not fit to drive.

Yusuf, while reacting to the incident at the House, said there is a case involving a BRT driver currently before his committee .

He agreed that it was an offence for anyone to ply the BRT lane but more of an offence to kill anybody because he was plying the route.

“It is an offence for anyone to take the BRT lane, but killing is forbidden,” he said.

He said the committee has started looking into the issue and that sanctions would be invoked where necessary.

Yusuf said he had personally witnessed the recklessness of some of the drivers, adding that he would also meet with the State Commissioner for Transportation, Kayode Opeifa, over the issue.

On his part, the State Commissioner for Transportation, Kayode Opeifa, while reacting to commuters’ complaints about the poor condition of BRT buses, attributed the poor maintenance of the buses to the dearth of spare parts in the country.

He said: “You know, we don’t manufacture buses and we don’t manufacture spares but we have acquired additional 50 buses. Besides, Safest Way Transport in Agege has just acquired 10 more buses, while Mutual Transports in Ejigbo/Ikotun has also acquired another 30 buses. We have a total of about 80 to 90 new buses now, which will soon be introduced; we are also working hard with the operators to improve their capacity to fix their buses.

“The major problem is the issue of spare parts, which we don’t manufacture, but by and large, the operators can do better. We are working hard with the owners of those buses to ensure that they improve on the quality of their services.”