The Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) has suspended Juldan Motors Bus Services’ road service licence for frequently causing accidents.

And the agency has given Juldan Motors 48 hours in which to cease its operations from all public roads.

According to a statement issued by RTSA head of public relations, Frederick Mubanga, the agency revealed that the operator’s frequent causing of accidents was posing a serious danger to the public.

Mubanga stated that investigations carried out in a number of accidents involving the operator established that excessive speed was a prominent cause of the accidents.

“The Road Transport and Safety Agency has suspended the Road Service Licence (RSL) for Juldan Motors Bus Services for violating the conditions upon which the operator’s licence was granted. In a letter dated 30th April, 2018, RTSA director and chief executive officer Mr. Zindaba Soko stated that the recent road traffic accidents involving Juldan Motors Bus Services have been frequent and thereby posing a serious danger to the public. Mr Soko has stated that the agency has noted with concern that the operator has either failed or neglected to address the problem of excessive speed in its operations and the nation has continued to lose people as a result of the road accidents that could otherwise [have] been preventable,” Mubanga stated.

“On 3rd November 2017, a Lusaka-bound Juldan Motors bus, Scania Marcopolo, registration number ALF 6760 was involved in a road accident in Serenje near Kanona area, where one person died and 31 were left injured. On March 18th 2018, another Juldan Motors bus was involved in a road traffic accident along the Ndola-Kapiri Mposhi road. On 29th March 2018, another Juldan Motors bus registration number ALR 811 heading to South Africa was involved in an accident in Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe, where one person died and 33 were injured. And within a space of four days, another Juldan Motors bus was involved in a road accident on the 2nd April 2018 along the Kasama-Luwingu road and four people died and several passengers were left injured.”

Mubanga stated that judging from the highlighted accidents, it was clear that the company’s road safety profile had increasingly deteriorated.

“Investigations carried out in all these road accidents have established that excessive speed was prominent as the cause of the accidents. In light of the highlighted incidents, it is very clear that the company’s road safety profile has increasingly deteriorated and the RTSA is evoking section 108 (16) of the Road Traffic Act No. 11 of 2002 which states as follows; ‘A road service licence may be revoked or suspended in whole or in part or its terms or conditions may be varied by the director of the ground that any condition subject to which the licence or a variation was granted has not been complied with’, ‘provided that the director shall not revoke, suspend or in terms of this sub-section, vary such a licence unless owing to the frequency of breach of conditions on the part of the licence holder or to the breach having been committed wilfully, or to the danger to the public involved in the breach, the director is satisfied that the licence should be revoked’,” Mubanga cited.

He, however, gave Juldan Motors a 48-hour ultimatum in which to cease its operations on the roads.

“RTSA has forthwith given Juldan Motors bus service 48 hours to cease operations and, thereafter none of the operator’s buses shall be expected to be on the road. The RSL will only be restored subject to the operator meeting the conditions that the agency has set to address the findings from the accident investigations,” stated Mubanga.