Rocks thrown at tour buses raise alarm

Recent incidents of rocks being thrown at tour buses have damaged glass, caused injury, and disrupted cultural exchange between foreign and CNMI students— leaving the industry concerned about this recurring trend.

Photo shows the damaged glass window of a PDI shuttle bus after it was hit by a rock thrown at the bus on Jan. 15, 2015. The bus was passing Tanapag Elementary School heading north around 2:45pm when a rock was suddenly thrown, hitting the right passenger side window. (Contributed Photo)

On Jan. 15 this month, it was reported that a bus carrying 200 Japanese students was hit around 2:45pm, cracking the right passenger side window.

The bus was heading north and passing Tanapag Elementary School when it happened.

The 200 students brought by Pacific Development Inc. had just come from a cultural exchange visit with Kagman High School and were heading down to Marpi.

The incident was reported to the police, and the bus proceeded to the Last Command Post, where students were transferred to another bus to continue their schedule.

The damaged bus then went to the DPS office in Susupe to report the incident.

The January incident comes on top of another incident involving a Duty Free shuttle bus in December.

According to a statement by Duty Free to the Marianas Visitors Authority and Japan Saipan Travel Association, one passenger was injured when rocks were thrown at a DFS bus in Puerto Rico.

This passenger was reportedly injured, and taken to the hospital and an eye clinic. Fortunately, according to the statement, it was only a minor injury.

It is believed that more rock throwing has occurred in the northern area, but has not been reported.

PDI’s Gordon Marciano said they would like to “open up a dialogue” and “communicate with the community” on this pressing issue that could leave a “bad image for the CNMI when the only industry we have is tourism.”

“Here we are promoting the CNMI and sharing with our local community and the [Public School System] about the importance of tourism but someone out there does not appreciate it,” he said in email.

According to him, there was another incident of rock throwing in front of Mt. Carmel Church in March 2014. “Fortunately DPS was on site to take matters into their own hands.”

In an interview yesterday, Marianas Visitors Authority managing director Perry Tenorio called these incidents “very concerning.”

“We do a lot of outreach through MTEC [Marianas Tourism Education Council] to teach students the importance of tourism and also through other outreach programs on the importance of tourism to the CNMI’s economy,” he said.

“This behavior is discouraged. We seek the cooperation of DPS in investigating these incidents and take the necessary steps to prevent it from happening again.”