A retired traffic court magistrate, Reverend Graveney Bannister, on Tuesday urged authorities to urgently reform the public service vehicle (PSV) system after Monday’s crash outside Lester Vaughan School left more than two dozen pupils and a driver injured.
He warned that the culture of lawlessness among operators will persist unless owners face consequences and tougher penalties are imposed.
The retired magistrate, an Anglican cleric, told Barbados TODAY that the PSV culture had become “unruly” and “disrespectful”, and reform must go beyond classroom training for drivers.
“There’s a need for more enforcement,” Rev Bannister said. “The police were short over the last few years but there’s a need for more enforcement. And there’s a need for quicker trials of these matters. If these matters are tried quickly, then the appropriate sentences are meted out. Then persons will not assume that they can keep breaking the law with impunity.”
He argued that lasting reform must target the root of the problem — the ownership and management structure of the PSV industry. “A lot of these minibuses are owned by certain people, so people (operators) feel like they can get away with it, if they (PSVs) are owned by certain individuals,” Rev Bannister explained. “It’s one of the problems, the ownership of them, those people who own minibuses, who have certain connections… If the owners are held responsible, then you see a change in culture.”
Rev Bannister also urged authorities to modernise the court system by introducing a national database to track traffic convictions across jurisdictions, warning that the absence of such a system allows repeat offenders to slip through unnoticed.
He explained that some PSV drivers commit offences in one district, such as Christ Church, and then move to another area like St Michael, where their past convictions are not readily available to magistrates: “They go off route and commit offences in different jurisdictions. There needs to be a database where each court can look and see what the convictions are in another jurisdiction.”
A centralised, digital record of traffic offences would allow courts and licensing authorities to access a driver’s full history, ensuring that habitual offenders face consistent penalties wherever they operate. Such a system, he said, would close the loopholes that have long allowed dangerous operators to “slip through the cracks” and continue working on the roads unchecked.
“It should not be a knee-jerk approach. It should be a systematic approach to weeding out all the bad drivers.”
Rev Bannister recalled that during his tenure on the bench, he imposed fines for each passenger carried beyond the legal limit, insisting that tougher sentencing was needed to deter reckless operators.
“At the end of the day, there’s a need for a more strict approach in terms of sentencing,” he said.
PSV operators often “hustle” to meet daily financial targets set by vehicle owners, creating an incentive for dangerous driving and overcrowding. “If there was a way for them to own their own vehicles, then there would be less hustling,” he said. “There would be more care because if the vehicle gets written off, they would have something to lose.”
The former magistrate also proposed revising the Road Traffic Act to impose harsher penalties for dangerous driving and repeated offences, coupled with mandatory retraining for disqualified drivers. “Whilst one is disqualified, there should be a need for them to go back to school,” he said. “There is a great need for reform. You can’t keep saying, do a course here, do a course there. We need to get rid of those powder-puff sentences.”
He stressed that reform must also involve parents and schools, given the number of students who rely on PSVs to get to class. “Parents should encourage their children where possible to catch Transport Board buses. It’s a safer option,” he said. “There is a need for guidance from parents — guidance on how to take the bus.”
Rev Bannister suggested closer monitoring of students’ movements before and after school to reduce loitering and risky travel habits. “There needs to be checks to make sure that they are going off to school and they are supposed to be going off to school,” he said. “Children need to do what they are supposed to do — to go to school and learn. Not to be liming, not to be corrupted by the lewd music that they hear…”
For decades, PSV operators have faced public criticism for reckless driving, loud and vulgar music, and frequent disregard for traffic laws.
In 2015, a 14-year-old schoolgirl’s left forearm was severed in an accident in which a ZR overturned at John Beckles Drive with 21 passengers, including several Springer Memorial schoolmates, on board.
sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb
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