The Director of Operations for Mass Transportation of Panama, SA, MiBus, Yasveld Ríos, revealed that vandalism against buses has been increasing in recent days, which has caused the expense of some $140,000 in repairs.
“We are calling on citizens to practice respect for state assets, we must remember that all buses and paid areas are part of state assets and hence our concern about the cases of vandalism that we are having. We are around a daily case, if we make the comparison with last year, in which we had about 300 cases, in 2020, as a result of the pandemic, mobility restrictions that were in place, curfew and others, we had a little more than 200 cases and in 2019 we had over 500 cases, so what we are seeing this year is that we are going to overcome the trend of what we saw in 2019 and that is what increases our concern,” Ríos said in Telemetro Reporta .
He added that every time a bus is vandalized, it directly affects the citizenry, since that bus must be taken off the road to be repaired and for the Prosecutor’s Office to take samples of what was vandalized to start the investigation.
The Director of Operations added that in the last three years the company has had to invest some $140,000, which is a direct economic impact and there is also the risk to the physical integrity of the people or the driver who goes on the bus, especially Ríos added that 20% of travelers have been affected with injuries, generally minor.
The National Police indicated that the areas where these cases of vandalism have been most perceived are in the 5 de Mayo, the Gran Estación and in the 24 de Diciembre.
