In the midst of a crackdown by police on the use of mag rims on minibuses, operators say the accessory is about stability, not style.
When this newspaper visited the minibus parks in Georgetown yesterday several drivers were complaining about the treatment being meted out to them by the police whenever they stop them for checks.
Drivers said they were informed that “the wheels of the vehicles, by law, cannot be wider than the vehicle”. However, efforts to contact Traffic Chief Brian Joseph for a comment on the issue yesterday proved futile.
Michael Inderdeo, a Route 32 driver, said, “When dem police stop you, dem does want lil money and if you nah give them does lock you up or target you.”
Inderdeo stated that he is constantly stopped by police officers on the West Coast Demerara, since they seem to be targeting him. He added that there are several drivers, especially those who drive newer models of minibuses, who encounter the same problem with the police.
The driver, who has been operating for 15 years, said operators need the mag rims to ensure safety.
Another driver, Denish Khamraj, said that now the police have chosen to have the mag rims removed from their vehicles means more accidents and increased road fatalities. He added that this will not be as a result of speeding or breaking the law but rather a result of the police force’s actions.
Head of the United Minibus Union Eon Andrews last evening questioned the recent actions of the police targeting operators who have mag rims on their vehicles, while stating that there is no law, to his knowledge, that stipulates that those rims are illegal.
“Those rims are imported and the police need to do police job and stop interfering in that because there is nothing to say that those are illegal and I strongly protest the removal of those rims,” he told Stabroek News.
According to several minibus drivers, the mag rims add stability to vehicles when they are navigating turns. A driver, who asked not to be named, explained, “When buses come to Guyana for the first time, there used to be a lot of them toppling over and people used to say that the drivers don’t know how to drive. But when they start to use mag rims and the wheels get wider, there were less toppling over and that shows that the mag rims makes it stable and style is just a plus.”
Over the past week the police on the West Bank Demerara, East Bank Demerara and West Coast Demerara have been pulling over vehicles, especially minibuses, and ordering them to take their mag-rims off and also instituting fines ranging from $10,000 to $15,000.
