A member of Parliament in Samoa has called on government to look at banning locally manufactured buses following the death of three passengers after a bus disintegrated when it rolled out of control last Saturday afternoon.
Backbencher Faumuina Wayne Fong told a radio program that locally manufactured buses have always been dangerous and certainly never safe when involved in accidents.
He called on government to reintroduce a ban on locally manufactured buses.
“Imported ready made buses are the safest buses and we need to bring back the ban on locally made buses,” he said.
A report in the Samoa Observer said a surviving passenger, Tausaga Solifono, told of the bus driver trying to change a song on his cellphone connected to the bus’ sound system when the bus veered into an oncoming car.
Solifono, whose grandmother was one of the three fatalities, said the bus rolled many times disintegrating as it rolled.
Miraculously, most of the 46 passengers escaped with minor injuries and most have been released from hospital.
Police are still trying to identify one of the deceased, a woman, and have appealed for help from the public.
