The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has described passenger overloading in Public Service Vehicles (PSV) as reckless.

LTA acting chief executive officer Irimaia Rokosawa said PSV bus drivers should continuously ensure and comply with requirements for the safe loading and offloading of passengers.

Under the PSV Drivers Code of Conduct, drivers are fully responsible for the safety of passengers in their vehicles.

“It is disappointing that despite the awareness sessions facilitated by LTA for bus operators, we continue to see these types of reckless driver behaviours,” Mr Rokosawa said.

“The LTA is calling on all bus operators to ensure full compliance with the PSV Drivers Code of Conduct as far as their drivers’ conduct and the safety of passengers are concerned.”

He threatened to impose penalties on these bus operators and drivers if they continued to disobey the law and endanger the lives of passengers.

This reminder is in response to complaints that Shore Buses Limited, located in Suva, has been overloading passengers.

Shore Buses Limited response

Bus company owner Aman Singh said his drivers and vehicles confront daily traffic congestion.

He admits that occasionally, their buses are overloaded with passengers rushing off to work or home.

However, the passengers travel at their own risk.

With 70 buses in their fleet, Mr Singh said that in order to accommodate customers travelling from the Suva Bus Stand along the Lami to Navua route during peak hour, they have had to use additional buses.

“One of the reasons passengers are overloaded in the bus is because it takes one bus around two hours to travel from Lami to Navua during peak hours,” Mr Singh said.

“Passengers are advised not to board the bus, but since the one-way road and water pipeline work carried out at Delainavesi during peak hours creates more traffic, they don’t want to risk reaching work or home late.”

He said LTA has been told about this traffic congestion issue and the overload of passengers.

Mr Singh proposed that plans to fix the road or pipeline should be scheduled in order to avoid traffic bottlenecks and allow drivers to perform their jobs safely.

“Passengers should accept responsibility for their own actions, and LTA is fully aware of this,” he said.

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