The minibus situation has been allowed to deteriorate

Dear Editor,

In response to your editorial of Oct. 15th entitled ‘Ten deaths’ I must refer to the story about the boy in Holland who saw a hole in the sea defence (sand dike) and plugged the hole with his finger until workmen arrived.

That boy knew what could have happened if the hole was allowed to get bigger and in life situations can be looked at in similar fashion, a crack if not fixed early will become unfixable.

When the late president Hoyte allowed minibuses to come in duty free he did a very good thing for the Guyanese people but the Guyanese minibus culture came also.

Mr Editor, I watch the behaviour of minibus operators every day and what I see is a set of people who have no or very little regard for the people they fetch and no regard for traffic rules.

These operators pack the buses so tight there is hardly breathing space, the music in the buses is really unbearable noise and it is not unusual to see a driver drinking a beer or Guinness. They will stop the bus anywhere at an intersection or in the middle of the road, then there’s the speed, they are always racing each other. These bus drivers don’t seem to understand traffic signs and they don’t seem particularly bright.

All this came about because the authorities did not consider it important to bring order to the minibus industry early and now the situation has got out of hand and is almost unfixable.

Finally, I have been saying for the longest while that the timber and fuel going to East Bank Dem establishments should go by the Demerara River.

Yours faithfully,

WP George