Monrovia – The National Transit Authority says it regrets to inform the public that on 29 April 2016 one of its mass transit buses, “bus 5172”, was gutted by fire at Careysburg, along the Monrovia-Kakata Highway.
The entity said while it seeks to establish the cause of the incident, Management wishes to inform the public that information from its bus crew indicates that the fire started from the engine compartment of the bus.
“All efforts of the bus crew using the bus fire extinguisher and with the assistance of commuters and by standers using dirt was in vain. However, we remain grateful to the Almighty God and the collaboration between our bus crew and the commuters that there was no human casualties or loss of lives”, the statement added.
In a statement, the NTA stated that in collaboration with the Liberia National Police it has commenced investigation into the cause of the incident.
The statement furthered: “We can assure the public that the Authority will not relent in dealing with the cause of the incident. We continue to increase the quality of work in our garage by prioritizing foreign and local trainings of our technical and operational staff”.
The bus in question was an Ashok Leyland Falcon bus procured by the government of Liberia in May 2012.
The NTA noted that since 2012, the bus was in active operations until the incident, indicating that before leaving the compound of the National Transit Authority on 29 April 2016, routine repairs and maintenance service was performed on the bus and was qualified by the Technical Department for operations.
“Consistent with the aforementioned, we want to assure our commuting public that the National Transit Authority remains committed to providing affordable, convenient and reliable public transportation service for the people of Liberia. At the NTA, we see every challenge as an opportunity to improve where there are undetected problems” the NTA statement continued.
The NTA also stated: “We believe in problem solving and will never lose focus of the mandate conferred on the NTA by providing affordable, effective and reliable public transportation for the people of Liberia”.