Ed had to leave early to drive out to the land this morning - 5 am to be exact. And he wouldn't be able to return to Sucre for a couple of days. Nor will I be able to visit our land. Bus drivers had decided on a 48 hour blockade of all roads leading in and out of all cities in Bolivia.
The drivers are opposing a highway safety decree that was recently approved by the government and orders the removal of the vehicle from service for a year and cancellation of the bus driver’s license for good when he has an accident while driving under the influence of alcohol.
The transport workers said they agreed with the sanctions against drivers who operate their vehicles while drunk, but not with the removal of the vehicles from service since they are the very source of their jobs at the transport firms.
According to government statistics, each year more than 1,000 people die on Bolivia’s roadways in traffic accidents. In January of this year there were more than 100 deaths related to bus crashes in the country.
Bolivia is one of the least regulated countries in terms of transport safety, with only Argentina and Chile operating bus transport in South America that adopt safety standards comparable with those in the Western world. The bus companies in Bolivia seem more interested in making money than ensuring the safety of their passengers. They sell more tickets than there are seats during busy times, resulting in people sitting on stools in the aisles. Many of the buses would not pass mechanical inspections in first world countries - only last year a bus Ed and I were travelling on had one of its tyres burst into flames (right underneath where I was sitting) because the brakes had heated up to a red hot level (probably no brake pads left, only metal).
Most long distance buses run at night time, there are no relief drivers so the solitary driver is on his own through the night on treacherous roads, keeping awake by chewing coca leaves. The breaks are short and at the end of a long journey mistakes are common, as experienced by us in Peru a couple of years ago, when the bus we were travelling narrowly missed falling down a ravine after colliding with a fruit truck. (see my blog of Jan 22nd 2008 - A Close Shave on the road to Cusco, Peru at http://junedonaldson.blogspot.com/2008/01/close-shave-on-road-to-cusco-peru.html).
Drivers working whilst under the influence of alcohol are not unusual in Bolivia. During Carnaval it is hard to find a long distance bus driver who hasn't be celebrating with copious amounts of alcohol. Their employers seem unconcerned and there are no checks to see if their drivers are fit for the road.
There is no doubt that the Bolivian government is right to bring in a law to remove the licence of a driver who causes an accident through being drunk at the wheel. But the government is also right to penalize the bus companies by confiscating their vehicles for allowing their drivers to take control of a bus full of passengers in an unfit state to drive. Only in this way can accidents be prevented. Whatever sympathy one has for the drivers, they must see that the safety of passengers who trust their lives to the bus companies and their drivers must take precedence over jobs.
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