At least five people are reported to have been injured when a bus lost control and crashed into waiting passengers at Doha’s crowded central bus station yesterday afternoon.
The incident took place at around 4pm, which is one of the busiest times at the Mowasalat bus station in Old Ghanim near Souq Waqif.
According to eyewitnesses reported in The Peninsula, the driver of the No. 29 bus, which was bound for Al Khor, appeared to lose control as he was driving slowly into the stand, ploughing into concrete crash barriers where some of the injured had been sitting.
One witness told Doha News he was at the nearby old Gold Souq when he heard screams from those in the station shortly after 4pm:
@dohanews @LesleyWalker17 Yes,was at Gold Souk,heard screams runup to see what happened found Karwa Bus ramped ppl waiting at the station
— Neeshad Shafi (@ineeshadvs) March 21, 2015
The injured are reported to include two people of African nationality, two Bangladeshis and one Indian.
The Gulf Times quotes a station supervisor as saying that most of the injured suffered broken legs.
Emergency personnel, including Al Fazaa, Civil Defense and paramedics, were soon on the scene. It is understood that the injured individuals were taken to Hamad General Hospital for treatment.
The driver of the bus was arrested by police at the scene, according to a security guard who saw the crash, the Gulf Times adds.
Third crash
The incident is the second of its kind at the same station in just three months and the third in less than two years. On Dec. 12, 2014, four people were killed and many more injured when a Karwa bus crashed through concrete barriers, striking and running over people who were standing nearby.
As with yesterday’s crash, that incident also took place on a Friday, which is one of the busiest days at the station because many people have the day off and flock there to use public transportation.
And in August 2013, a vehicle drove into a crowd of people at the same station, injuring more than a dozen after the driver apparently lost control of his bus. That driver had apparently hit the bus accelerator instead of the brake.
Some residents have previously criticized the layout of the bus station, arguing that the series of heavy concrete barriers offer insufficient protection to waiting passengers from buses maneuvering the crowded terminus.
Did you see what happened? Thoughts?
Bus Station & Bus route seriously need an upgrade, They need to make another Bus Station in Industrial Area.
The government should revoke Karwa’s license to operate as a public service provider. They are unfit for that job.
Agreed.
A greed.
Fixed it for you.
Govt is not focusing on the Public Transport sector. They dont care, See other GCC, their Bus Stations is Fully Airconditioned. See the Karwa Bus Stations- Fully AirContinuous.Hot as oven. Others only Pole of having the Bus Signage under the Biting Heat of the Sun.
It’s a “public” transport system. It MUST be under government control. Otherwise it won’t be “public” but “private”.
while I agree that it should be government owned, in the UK the public transport is run by private companies like Virgin and First which are listed on the stock exchange.(i.e. not government)
It’s very sad that the public bus station is not in good condition, the toilets and waiting shelter those patronising mowasat are standing under the heat what a discrimination
either this karwa bus service is sleeping or it injure or kill the people useless service
Isn’t this a repeat. I’m sure this is not the first time a bus has killed people there.
Even after huge investments in Karwa the bus station is pitiable and not upto standard safety design…
This shows how horrible the Karwa driving schools are. Not that it wasn’t obvious since they opened, but yea Karwa drivers are the worst drivers in this country. I have only seen 3 or 5 Karwa taxis abaide by the rules ever since they kicked out the old Orange taxis.
It’s funny how only in Qatar people are referred to by their race and country where they come from. Bangladeshi, Indian… blah blah blah… Why can’t they be referred to as people? it’s not like we are going to know who they are by their nationality or it’s going to benefit us. This detail is so unnecessary.
The idea of associating a person to his nationality while reporting is commonplace in all Gulf countries.You are known not by your name but where are you come from? Its a stupid policy but dont think will change anytime soon.
Nobody called me a Papuan New Guinean yet :)))
I agree that an injured person is a human foremost. It would be great if Doha News could take a leadership position in this area. Omitting nationalities unless it is specifically relevant (e.g. visa issues) and perhaps including them as a footnote only. We all generalise, however I feel that for these types of articles, the nationality of those involved is of secondary importance.
BV3 Glee cover as avi. Niche!
It’s everything but “funny”. It’s discrimination and only lives in the “developing” world. Elsewhere it is frowned upon.
Figure of speech Daniel, where funny refers to ironic…
Either the traffic authorities and the Karwa management will not listen or will only wake up when a major disaster happens at that station which is more like a run down scrap yard. At this station on one side we have untrained and inefficient bus drivers with very little proper training put in charge of passenger buses and on the other side of the bus stand we have illegal private taxi operators with their dirty and smelly private cars calling out, harassing and abusing passengers waiting for transport to their homes or offices. All this goes on right under the eyes of the Karwa management at that station and nobody at Karwa or the traffic dept. seems to care
None of the bus stations in England have concrete barriers or any protection at all. The issue isn’t protection. It’s under-trained and/or over worked drivers, maybe buses aren’t maintained well either. This should be investigated and changes need to be mad. Twice in 3 months is enough of a wake up call.
Exactly and that maybe one reason why here they have two sets of concrete barriers but with the way the situation is even five sets of concrete barriers will not be of much help if the drivers are so untrained or over worked. Untrained, over worked and careless drivers are a serious safety and security hazard to other road users. The other thing that has been observed is that most of this Karwa bus and taxi drivers are always busy on their mobile phones while at the wheel
Sad tp Say. we are not in England, welcome to Qatar.
I’m in England. Let’s swap.
The leader of incompetence, namely Mowasalat, did it again. Way to go!
“appeared to lose control as he was driving slowly”….identify what’s wrong in this fragment.
there is no such thing as bus 29
Speedy recovery to all those injured. Hope less reckless driving from some here.
Are they investigating buses also or only drivers? Because the fact that this kind of issues happened more than once before might be a sign that the bus has some braking issues. Since they use mostly Tata buses, I am very skeptical about their quality.
Tata buses are known to be faulty They have been removed out of service elsewhere. Just look at Dubai for example, they use Mercedes and Volvo ones.
Hire people that can drive…and more importantly hire people that know the meaning of respect (not only in traffic) and that have a self-preservation instinct at least. Or keep recruiting from the same places and let them wipe everyone off the roads because they’re “cheaper”.
They have to change the complete procedure of taking passengers to the buses. Bus should be stopped in the bus waiting area and no need to come towards waiting shed to take the passengers. Bus comes always in a face to face direction towards people in waiting areas and can make accidents how it happened recently . The officials has to change the set up there like if Bus is ready to go, passengers can walk to the bus waiting area and enter safely. for walking towards the bus they should make a pedestrian walking track to avoid more accidents.
i read somewhere else that the driver got confused with the controls as he was driving one of the newer bus models and was unfamiliar with it. one driver told me the other driver from the incident last december used to be a school bus driver so he wasn’t used to the buses used for public bus routes. they normally use school bus drivers on fridays to augment the work force because there are so many passengers on those days.
the thing is, the stations are too crowded on weekends and many passengers don’t follow instructions to stand behind the barriers. they normally rush toward the buses when they arrive, especially those routes with destinations outside doha because the trips leave only once every hour, if they get on a bit later they will have to stand and if they miss the bus they need to wait for another hour. there is no queuing system in place (except for bus 76 that goes to city center, but it only happens on weekday mornings) so it tends to be chaotic. they need to increase the frequency of the trips. the bus i take used to have trips every half hour but now they only have trips every 45 minutes
in other news, i tried the sms thingie posted on bus stops and found it pretty reliable. i now know what time i should leave the office so i can go to the bus stop across the street and not have to wait a lifetime for the bus to arrive