(Dakar) A collision between a bus and a truck killed 22 people on Monday in Senegal, where carriers are resisting measures announced a week earlier after another accident in which more than 40 people died.
Prime Minister Amadou Ba, who went to the scene near the town of Sakal (North), said he was determined to apply the decisions taken after the accident of January 8, considering that once again, disregard for regulations had amplified the damage.
The coach that crashed on Monday had a capacity of 32 but was carrying 47 passengers, he told reporters.
“We have exceeded all the limits and it is the responsibility of the government to implement the measures” announced on January 9, he declared as a strike against these same measures approached, while saying to himself ready for discussion with carriers.
A witness interviewed by private radio RFM reported that the bus had swerved to avoid a donkey, one of those many animals that roam on or along the roads in Senegal.
On January 8, it was the bursting of a tire, according to the investigation, which caused the collision of two coaches in the center of the country. 42 people had died, according to the latest report to date.
These accidents highlight the well-known road ills in Senegal as in many African countries: obsolescence and dangerous layout of vehicles, reckless driving, or widespread corruption of agents responsible for enforcing laws or passing driving licenses. conduct.
The tragedy of January 8, one of the deadliest in Senegal in recent years, has sparked a flood of criticism against the authorities for their inability to enforce driving rules, but also regulations on the condition of vehicles.
The government immediately announced some twenty measures. Many of them are decried by transport professionals as being out of step with economic realities or lifestyles, for example the ban on coaches and minibuses running at night, or the ban on importing tires used.
“Big Cap”
Buses conveying passengers and goods are an essential means of transport between localities, for lack of other solutions.
Buses are commonly converted to increase their capacity and equipped with roof racks that are often overloaded to the point of threatening handling.
Part of the transport unions have announced an indefinite strike in protest. “The strike begins Tuesday at midnight”, in other words Wednesday at 00:00 local time and GMT, said in the media Abdou Karim Seck, an official of the National Union of Road Carriers of Senegal.
The authorities have already reversed the ban on equipping coaches with luggage racks and granted a one-year extension.
Another reason for confrontation between the government and carriers, in an inflationary context: prices.
Minibus operators have just announced an increase in their prices in the Dakar region, citing the recent reduction by the State of fuel subsidies and the increase of 100 CFA francs (15 euro cents) in prices diesel and super.
The government refused this increase which, according to him, would be illegal, for lack of having been validated by the authorities.
Road accidents officially kill 700 people each year in Senegal, a country of more than 17 million inhabitants.
In 2019, Senegal had a road death rate of 24 per 100,000 inhabitants, and sub-Saharan Africa 27 per 100,000, for a rate of 6 per 100,000 in the European Union and 2 in Switzerland, according to the Bank. world.