About 25 young people from Tinajo were "stranded" in Famara in the early hours of last Saturday to Sunday, when the bus that the Town Hall of their municipality had provided to take them to and from the festival did not appear. According to the mayor, Jesús Machín, the bus did appear, but at another stop, and he blames the company and the Teguise Town Hall for this.
"The fault was with the poor coordination of the Teguise Town Hall and the bus company", says Machín, who does not hide his "anger". "I have called all the parents, I have called the Teguise councillor Echedey Eugenio and I am going to call the mayor, Oswaldo Betancort, because I think they have very bad organization. There should be a coordination centre like the one in Los Dolores", he said.
According to Machín, the problem arose when the bus arrived with the young people from Tinajo to Famara, and the Local Police told the driver to stop in an area that was not the one that was theoretically enabled. At that moment, according to the explanations given by the mayor of Tinajo to La Voz, the driver told the young people that the bus back would wait for them right there at the scheduled time, 4.30 in the morning.
"The driver did not warn the other driver"
However, when the young people arrived at that time to the stop where they had been dropped off to return to their homes, the bus did not appear. According to Machín, it was there, but further away, in what should have been the "official" stop. Apparently, the driver did not warn the next driver of "where he had to pick up the people". For this reason, the mayor of Tinajo blames the company, but also the Teguise Town Hall.
"The police order them to be dropped off at one stop, and on the way back they don't let them get to that stop", criticizes Machín, who also states that, according to the testimonies he has collected, "there was no civil protection at the enabled stop, nor was there any local police?" and "traffic was causing problems to let the bus pass".
In his opinion, this would have been avoided by enabling "a plain where all the buses go". "This doesn't happen in Los Dolores!", he reiterated with obvious indignation, insisting that he has already spoken to all the parents "one by one" and that he will continue to convey his complaints to the Teguise Town Hall.
Early morning scare
The mayor of Tinajo explains that he was notified after 6 am. Apparently, the sister of a councillor was among the young people who had used this transport service and when she saw that the bus was not arriving, she contacted the councillor. "When I was notified, the councillor and I went with the Town Hall bus to look for the people", explains Machín.
However, when they arrived at about 7 am, there was no one left. "Some were picked up by their parents, others went with friends... even the monitor took some", says the mayor of Tinajo, who says that the young people travelled with a coordinator and a youth monitor.
According to his testimony, the bus left Famara "with three gentlemen from Tinajo", who had not even contracted the service beforehand. "The driver asked if there was anyone for Tinajo, those three gentlemen got on and left", while the young people were "stranded" waiting at another stop.
"We are going to return the money to them"
In total, the outward service was used by 24 young people, and 26 had to return, but none of them could do so on the bus they had hired. "This Tuesday I will meet with the parents to apologize to them. We are going to return the money to them and we are going to give them an explanation", Jesús Machín has advanced, who assures that, despite what happened, he will maintain this service in the coming years.
"That means of transport is important and we are going to continue to maintain it. It was Tinajo's turn and it could have been any municipality's turn", he says, again attacking the organization of the municipality of Teguise. "Am I angry? Of course. With the Town Hall and with the buses that went", he says.
