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“Oued El Harrach: a bus plunges, a transport system collapses”

A time of reflection

In a few seconds, a crowded bus switched from a bridge to the El Harrach wadi, taking 18 lives and leaving 9 injured behind him. A drama which, beyond tears, exposes the gaping flaws of our public transport system, between lax technical controls and insufficiently formed drivers.
An late afternoon. This Friday, the news struck like a thunderclap: in Algiers, a public transport bus left the road, crossed the railing of a bridge and finished its race in the wadi bed. Eighteen passengers died (Allah Yerhamhoum), nine others were injured, including two seriously. The scene, of incredible violence, froze the whole country in stupor.
But behind the pain, an observation is essential: this accident is no coincidence, it is the symptom of a faulty system.

Technical control: a weakened defense line
In a largely dilapidated rolling stock, where the shortage of spare parts and tires has become structural, technical control is supposed to play the role of safeguard.

However, the facts and testimonies point to a process sometimes reduced to a formality:
compliance lvignettes delivered without meticulous inspection,
rarely audited control lcentres,
Labence of clear traceability of compulsory repairs.
Lquand the rigor disappears, mechanics becomes a threat.
The human factor: when inexperience becomes a danger
The vehicle state does not explain everything. The human factor weighs heavy in this drama:
the young, sometimes immature, without real experience of driving a heavy vehicle,
LES PUSSIBLE TRANSHOOTER LOOK DEY
The psychotechnical evaluation to measure the ability to manage stress, fatigue or emergency situations.
To entrust a bus full of passengers to an unprepared driver is to accept that the road decides on the fate of dozens of lives.
Use reform system
The catastrophe of El Harrach is not just a local tragedy, it is a national alarm signal.

Two priorities are essential:
1. Make the technical control intransigent and transparent, also controlling the controllers,
2. Refundant the allocation of public transport permits, with theoretical training, practice and compulsory psychological monitoring.
Without firm and rapid reforms, other cities will live their own bereaved afternoon, and the road will continue to mow lives that could have been saved.
Hamid Sahnoun