Senegal bans night buses after deadly accident

The Senegalese government announced on Tuesday new measures to fight against road insecurity, including a ban on night bus trips and the import of second-hand tires, after an accident that killed 39 people on Sunday.

Public passenger transport vehicles will be banned from "travelling on interurban roads between 23:00 and 05:00", announced Prime Minister Amadou Bâ, at the end of a government meeting in the new town of Diamniadio, near Dakar.

Buses called "schedules", carrying passengers and goods, many of which travel at night from region to region, are one of the main means of transport in Senegal and cause many accidents.

Other measures prohibiting the importation of second-hand tires and making "mandatory the sealing of speedometers of vehicles transporting people and goods at 90 km/h" were also announced at the meeting on Tuesday.

Orders will be issued within 72 hours to enforce the 23 new measures announced.

They "must not be postponed or compromised. We will be uncompromising with those who violate the rules enacted to ensure the physical integrity of our citizens," said the Prime Minister.

Road accidents officially kill 700 people every year in Senegal, a West African country of more than 17 million inhabitants.

The new measures are announced after the collision between two buses that killed 39 people and injured 101 in the village of Sikilo, in the Kaffrine region (center), some 250 km from Dakar.

President Macky Sall, who visited the scene of the accident the same day, declared three days of national mourning starting Monday.