KINGSTON, Jamaica — Opposition spokesperson on Transport and Mining, Mikael Phillips, is calling for an urgent update from Minister of Transport, Daryl Vaz, on the state of the maintenance contracts with El Hydro Limited, which supplied the 110 US-retired school buses to the Government of Jamaica a year ago.

Phillips, in a statement on Thursday, said part of the justification for the high price of the units was that the supplier would be maintaining the buses to guarantee safety and maximum fleet availability. He said the fire which destroyed one of the units on Wednesday has raised serious questions about the existence of effective maintenance, covering periodic pre-dispatch checks, routine servicing as well as “D” checks and whether all units have working fire extinguishers on board.

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