Compensation for lost baggage
My daughter is pursuing secondary education. In her last mid-term vacation, while traveling back to school by bus, a distance of about 100km, her bag was lost. In fact, when she disembarked from the bus, she found a bag similar to hers but the contents inside were different. She asked the bus conductor who recalled that there was a passenger who disembarked on the way before who might have taken a similar bag. There were more valuable items in my daughter’s bag compared to the junks she found in this bag. What legal action can my daughter take against the bus owner and his conductor?
TK, ArushaIt seems the bus conductor who was acting for the bus owner did not tag the two similar bags with identities of the passengers as required by the law. It is an offence under the Transport Licensing (Public Service Vehicles) Regulations, 2020 not to tag luggage with similar identities. The Regulations requires a licensee, a bus owner in this case, in case of inter-city and inter-national public service vehicle to tag a passenger’s luggage and provide the passenger with a luggage identity tag bearing the name of the passenger and the final destination to ensure that passenger’s luggage is kept safe, secured and delivered to the passenger upon reaching the final destination. Where the passenger’s luggage is lost or damaged, the bus owner is bound to compensate the luggage or pay such amount of money equivalent to the value of the lost luggage to the passenger within 30 days from the date of reporting the incident and submission of the proof of lost item.
TK, ArushaIt seems the bus conductor who was acting for the bus owner did not tag the two similar bags with identities of the passengers as required by the law. It is an offence under the Transport Licensing (Public Service Vehicles) Regulations, 2020 not to tag luggage with similar identities. The Regulations requires a licensee, a bus owner in this case, in case of inter-city and inter-national public service vehicle to tag a passenger’s luggage and provide the passenger with a luggage identity tag bearing the name of the passenger and the final destination to ensure that passenger’s luggage is kept safe, secured and delivered to the passenger upon reaching the final destination. Where the passenger’s luggage is lost or damaged, the bus owner is bound to compensate the luggage or pay such amount of money equivalent to the value of the lost luggage to the passenger within 30 days from the date of reporting the incident and submission of the proof of lost item.
Your daughter is thus entitled to be compensated but the compensation shall be subject to proof of the value of the lost bag including the valuable items. You should note that under regulation 38(1), a passenger has a duty of declaring any valuable item carried in the checked in luggage. Compensation will be easily determined in case she abode to the said Regulations. We suggest you lodge a complaint with the Land Transport Regulatory Authority for enforcement of her rights in case the bus owner is adamant to pay.
