Sri Lanka's Private Bus Owners Association President to Step Down

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, June 27, 2002

Sri Lanka's Private Bus Owners Association President to Step Down

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The president of Sri Lanka's Private Bus Owners Association Gemunu Wijeratne has decided to step down due to what he said hostility between commuters and bus crews, the official Daily News said on Thursday.

Over the past two weeks, 13 people were killed in road accidents involving private buses which has created tension with the public taking the law into their own hands and smashing up dozens of private buses.

Wijeratne called on officials to defuse this tension instead ofblaming private bus operators, ignoring the shortcomings of the officials.

He, however, exposed the shortcoming of private buses as well by stating that 4,000 drivers were ignorant of road rules and morethan half of the 17,000 private owned busses were operated by those who did not understand basic mechanics and cannot attend to simple running repairs.

He also said some of the drivers were drug addicts and that there were over 50 percent more buses than needed on the city roads which led to cut-throat competition and ended in tragedy.

Meanwhile, the government has also shown concern over the increasing number of road accidents. Defense and Transport Minister Tilak Marapana called for a meeting of police officers, private transport bus owners and government officials Friday to enforce stringent measures to arrest the increasing number of accidents.

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