The Tribune

POLICE are investigating the circumstances behind a traffic accident involving a jitney and another car, which left a female passenger of the car with injuries.

According to reports, the jitney, route 11, collided with a Honda Accord on Sunday on Fox Hill Road.

The passenger of that vehicle was treated for a broken arm and later released.

Video of the aftermath of the accident was posted on Facebook, showing an injured woman, who appeared barely conscious in a wrecked car.

Persons on the scene argued with the jitney driver, who had passengers in his bus, and was seen in the video looking at the injured woman before apologising for the accident.

Assistant Superintendent Craig Stubbs, officer-in-charge of the Traffic Division, said police are investigating Sunday’s incident and that the driver was helping in the investigation.

The incident raised new questions about the jitney sector and its safety.

Despite this, the government is still expected to wait-out the results of its pilot project for a unified busing system before amending any policy or procedure associated with the industry.

In an interview with The Tribune yesterday, Minister of Transport Frankie Campbell said that now was not the time for a “systematic” knee-jerk reaction.

He stressed that while the circumstances surrounding Sunday’s incident were unfortunate, officials needed to “stay the course” in their attempts to construct the ideal system for public transportation moving forward.

Yesterday, the Southern Shores MP insisted the government had not relented in its efforts to provide the public with the safest and most reliable public transportation system possible, as he recommitted the Minnis administration to achieving the compendium of road traffic mandates they presented upon coming to office.

“We have not overlooked what we committed ourselves to doing,” Mr Campbell said.

“I, like so many others in the public, am bothered by what happened (Sunday). But we are pressing forward with the pilot project and will see it through with the best plan possible,” he added.

Campbell said the government has made strides in the right direction, and expects a workable plan to be generated in the coming weeks.

The proposed unification of the public bus system is part of the New Providence Road Improvement Programme (NPRIP), funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which also involved the upgrading of the island’s road network.

A $530,000 pilot project will demonstrate how the busing scheme will work, in an effort to boost the island’s “economic efficiency and sustainability”.

The Minnis administration has announced plans to establish a unified busing system - fuelled by smart technology - as part of a plan to improve the transportation network within the Bahamas.

An IDB paper, obtained by Tribune Business in the early part of last year, revealed that little progress towards practical jitney/bus industry reform has been made despite numerous reports and studies being presented to the government, some of which date back to 1992.

According to the IDB, around 280 buses serve the Bahamian people on 23 different routes.