5 accidents, one being run over: all due to “people’s faults” on the metrobus in Coimbra

None due to system failure. President of Metro Mondego announced that he is making some changes to try to reduce claims.

None of the accidents with ‘metrobus’ registered in Coimbra since the beginning of commercial operations was due to a system failure, said the president of Metro Mondego today, who, even so, will apply some changes to try to reduce claims.

According to Leonel Serra, who has been in office for around two months, the Mondego Mobility System recorded, between January and May, five road accidents and one run overwithout any of the incidents recorded being due to a failure of the installed system.

“O system never failed. We always analyze and there is no accident in which the system has failed”, the person responsible told the Lusa agency, stating that there was also no red light ignored by any ‘metrobus’ driver (articulated buses on a dedicated road) in any of the accidents recorded.

“Everything is analyzed and everyone was people’s failures”, he noted.

Despite this, Leonel Serra stated that Metro Mondego is always analyzing possible adjustments to signaling, namely longer times for activating the red light for cars, repeated traffic lights in the drivers’ line of sight or ‘yellow boxes’ (yellow paint on the asphalt) in the areas where the metrobus channel crosses.

“In every accident, we analyze and we will substantially reduce, within what is technically possible, accidents”, he stressed.

Regarding canal invasions by automobilesLeonel Serra recalled that the entire network is filmed and that, to date, no participation to the policewhich will begin “from now on”, either with the PSP in Coimbra, or with the GNR in Lousã and Miranda do Corvo, to prosecute this type of behavior.

Also the inspection of validations in the system began on May 23, after the teams hired for this purpose had already been sworn by the Institute of Mobility and Transport (IMT).

“It will take a lot of people, distracted or due to negligence, who did not validate to start validating. I am convinced that validations will also increase in this way”, he noted.

Until mid-June, the inspection will begin with an educational approach, in which anyone traveling without a ticket will be “invited, at the next station, to validate” their ticket.

Subsequently, “what is stipulated by law will be done, which is to impose fines”, he said.