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You won't catch me on a bus below the border
I know that buses are a popular means of transit for many in third world countries, which is something that Central and South America have an abundance of. The combination of the high center of gravity of the vehicles and the poorly maintained mountain roads, creates a recipe for disaster. Now, I'm not just picking on this hemisphere, because third world countries on the other side of the world seem to have their share of bus accidents as well, taking the lives of many just looking for a quicker way to get to their destinations. It seems to me that more have been occurring on this side of the world this year. I have a cousin who lives in Panama and he tells me he would not ride a bus into the mountains for anything. He usually hikes through the mountains and said it's rough enough on foot, much less for a vehicle the size of a bus. A local friend of mine has been on several mission trips to Honduras. During one of those trips, he said his group was riding a bus and came to a steep, narrow part of the road. They told the driver to stop and they got off while he drove down the hill. "We weren't taking that chance," he added. That same friend also told me while there he discovered that no traffic rules or laws are actually enforced. He said everyone basically drive as they wish beeping horns as signals to each other. He said Tshirts are actually sold in shops and stores with slogans making fun of how horrible the driving conditions are. I am certain, bus drivers are no better than those manning the wheels of automobiles. Not only are buses really too large and bulky for many of the mountain trails, they are usually too overcrowded, increasing the chances of an accident. The overcrowding probably also contributes to the number of deaths in such incidents.
I am not planning to visit any of these countries. But if, for some reason currently unknown to me, I were to find myself down below the border, you certainly wouldn't catch me on a bus. There's just some chances I would never take, and that is one of them.
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