Macau Editorial | Until when?

Everyone will consider, of course, that the death of an elderly woman on a pedestrian crossing in Macau was tragic. But when the echoes of the news vanish in the cycle of days, only one family will feel the weight of the tragedy. Everyone else with responsibilities will quickly forget the case. It was not their mother, wife, sister, who died in vain.

For the responsible authorities who think that they do what is necessary but clearly do not use public transports, here is again the testimony of who does. Many of the drivers do not have enough training. Driving schools are not inspected as they should be and teaching is – by what we can witness on the streets, with school vehicles driving on the wrong lane, cutting curves, signaling badly – unacceptable.

When you get on a bus – anyone – a passenger almost has no time to pay, passing the Macau Pass on the machine, before the bus furiously drive away without giving passengers time to sit down. Drivers seem to be afflicted with a phobia, as if they were late, as if they were discounted if they did not make it to the next stop ahead of time.

This is the norm and only does not see who does not want to see it.

With all this, it is no wonder that yesterday’s tragic accident happened when a New Era bus was driving by a driver who got his license just nine months ago and who started to work three months ago, it seems, without supervision.

The blood and life of this old woman are in the hands of those who have the capacity to change this kind of things. Not the poor driver who, without experience and without supervision, has yet to bear the pressure of external factors such as time and circulation time, although companies get tens of millions of patacas from the public purse. How many more deaths will there be until shame causes something to change?