Public transport watchdog suspends Teso Coach operations
Jul 22, 2011
The Transport Licensing Board (TLB), the public transport industry watchdog, has suspended the operations of Teso Coach following the fatal accident involving one of the Soroti-based company’s buses.
BY SAMUEL BALAGADDE
The Transport Licensing Board (TLB), the public transport industry watchdog, has suspended the operations of Teso Coach following the fatal accident involving one of the Soroti-based company’s buses.
The entire fleet of the Teso Coaches will be re-inspected to ensure that the buses conform to the safety requirement, TLB top official announced on Monday.
Five of the buses showed up at the Naguru Inspectorate of Motor Vehicles (IOV) for re-inspection on Monday, where some were deregistered for non-conformity to safety requirements.
Winstone Katushabe, the TLB secretary, said the board usually re-inspects the entire fleet of any company whose buses get involved in fatal accidents.
He said each interstate bus is compelled to have two drivers to reduce driver fatigue.
Charles Odikol, the IOV chief, said several bus companies had been suspended until they are re-inspected and their drivers re-tested.
On Monday, TLB also cancelled the licences of Bakulu and Baby coaches, the two bus companies, whose vehicles were involved in a fatal accident in South Sudan recently.
The companies have been given provisional three-month permits.
Within that time, TLB will monitor the companies’ compliance to the guidelines, said Katushabe.
Regular licences for operators are issued annually.
Having two drivers for each of the interstate buses is one of the regulations.
One will drive passengers up to Nimule at the Sudan border, where another driver is expected to take over up to Juba.
Uganda has the second-highest road accident rate in sub-Saharan Africa, after Ethiopia, with over 2,000 people killed annually.
Road experts estimate that this costs the country up to 2.7% (over sh1trillion) of the gross domestic product in terms of lives lost, injury and vehicles and property destroyed.
The Transport Licensing Board (TLB), the public transport industry watchdog, has suspended the operations of Teso Coach following the fatal accident involving one of the Soroti-based company’s buses.
The entire fleet of the Teso Coaches will be re-inspected to ensure that the buses conform to the safety requirement, TLB top official announced on Monday.
Five of the buses showed up at the Naguru Inspectorate of Motor Vehicles (IOV) for re-inspection on Monday, where some were deregistered for non-conformity to safety requirements.
Winstone Katushabe, the TLB secretary, said the board usually re-inspects the entire fleet of any company whose buses get involved in fatal accidents.
He said each interstate bus is compelled to have two drivers to reduce driver fatigue.
Charles Odikol, the IOV chief, said several bus companies had been suspended until they are re-inspected and their drivers re-tested.
On Monday, TLB also cancelled the licences of Bakulu and Baby coaches, the two bus companies, whose vehicles were involved in a fatal accident in South Sudan recently.
The companies have been given provisional three-month permits.
Within that time, TLB will monitor the companies’ compliance to the guidelines, said Katushabe.
Regular licences for operators are issued annually.
Having two drivers for each of the interstate buses is one of the regulations.
One will drive passengers up to Nimule at the Sudan border, where another driver is expected to take over up to Juba.
Uganda has the second-highest road accident rate in sub-Saharan Africa, after Ethiopia, with over 2,000 people killed annually.
Road experts estimate that this costs the country up to 2.7% (over sh1trillion) of the gross domestic product in terms of lives lost, injury and vehicles and property destroyed.