Today Newspaper St. Maarten

Tour buses go through inspection every year

St. Maarten – The cause of the accident with the Dutch tour bus in Pic Paradis is still under investigation, so at this moment it is not possible to say whether it was cause by technical failure or by a human error.
Martha Thewet, the head of the school bus and taxi dispatch inspection department at economic affairs said yesterday that her unit is dealing with the inspection of school buses but not with that of tour buses. “We do a visual inspection and we have experts looking at technical issues,” she said. The experts may order bus drivers to take their buses for repairs.
But the department does not deal with tour buses. “We issue permits and licenses for tour buses,” Thewet said. “The license goes to the operators. Controlling the driver’s licenses of the buses is not up to us.”
Tour buses are subjected to an annual technical inspection though at the inspection center on Bush Road. Because Dutch Tours declined to give any information yesterday it is unclear when the bus that went down in Pic Paradis yesterday was inspected for the last time.