PIRATE BUSES  continue their deadly contribution to Panama’s grim  highway traffic statistics with  178 road users injured (many seriously) and 22 killed by drivers of illegal public  transport  since 2010.

Pirate vehicles    were involved in two separate accidents that sent five  passengers to hospital on Sunday, May 29.

The first was at dawn when the pirate busito collided with an articulated truck on the Pan-American highway at La Chorrera. Firemen  had to use the “jaws of life” (hydraulic clamp)s to rescue an injured passenger who was taken to the  Chorrera Social Security (CSS) hospital.

Four people were injured  at  11:00 am the same day , at the La Morelos roundabout in Tocumen, when  the pirate mini-bus  took the curve too quickly. The injured complained about the long wait for ambulances to caryy them to an hospital emergency.