Ask a cab driver in Panama City, Panama about their main complaint, and they won't tell you about being mugged at gunpoint or about the capital city's monstrous traffic jams. No, they'll most likely answer with three words: Los Diablo Rojos. The Red Devils.

The Red Devils are transformed former U.S. school buses that serve Panamanians as their primary source of mass transit. The name partly derives from the buses' psychedelic air-brush paint jobs. They are thoroughly tricked-out – chrome plating and colorful rims are understated accessories. I saw one with shark fins running down its roof.

Check out this neon beauty at night:

The emergency door at the back of most of these bus, which I remember opening in my school days to the sound of an ear-piercing alarm, seems to be reserved for portraits in Panama. I caught glimpses of J.Lo, Tupac, Jesus, Harry Potter, other celebrities, and the less famous like the driver's girlfriend or son. The photo (above-left) shows Osama Bin Laden, who besides being responsible for the deaths of thousands also happens to be a fan of the Barcelona soccer team.

The "Devil" part of their name is also easily perceptible: The noisy buses careen down Panama's streets at breakneck speeds with complete disregard for pedestrians, passengers and other cars. According to Panamanian police, the Diablo Rojos are proportionally eight times more likely to cause a traffic accident death than other motor vehicles. As one cab driver told me, "They're not just Devils, they're also crazy."

Apparently, the picturesque Diablo Rojos – and their school bus counterparts in other Central American nations – are not only deathtraps but health and environmental hazards as well.

In an article published by E, an online environmental magazine, Terri Patterson Smith writes about the former school buses in Central America:

At first glance, it seems like an environmental victory to squeeze the maximum life out of such equipment, the automotive equivalent of sending old sweaters to Goodwill. Yet, though the external transformation is dazzling, the internal machinery of these buses remains the same. As heavy black smoke blows from tailpipes—filled not only with global-warming pollution but also soot and other contaminants that cause more immediate health problems—it becomes clear that this form of reuse and recycling has a dark side.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency notes these old school buses emit up to six times more pollutants than buses built after 1990, writes Patterson. Newer models – and retrofitted older ones – with exhaust filtering technology are on the way, but it will be years before they hit the streets of Panama and other developing countries.

In recent years, the Diablo Rojos have even brought angry critics into the streets in protest: