Yet another call for urgent overhaul of the crisis-laden PSV industry
It is a miracle that no student was seriously injured or killed in the latest horrific vehicular accident this week involving a PSV vehicle — off-route and licensed to carry significantly fewer maximum passengers but carrying only schoolchildren — 25 of them, at a time when they should all have been at school. Allegations of alcohol involvement have not been officially confirmed. We thank God that the lives of these children were spared and wish those injured a speedy and complete recovery.
So here we are again. Yet another major accident involving PSVs, on top of the daily examples of their drivers’ — and therefore the vehicle owners’ — reprehensible behaviour on our roads.
We are sick and tired of being sick and tired of the apparent inability to decisively regulate the ‘minibus culture’ and behaviour of ZR vehicles. We are sick and tired of the gross indiscipline, the negligent driving, the daily risk of life and limb of passengers, and other road users. We are sick and tired of the loud gross ‘music’ and its crude hardcore sexual and antisocial ‘lyrics’ assaulting our ears and collective national soul, particularly damaging to our children. Any right-thinking Bajan resident must care about the safety of our roads for all of us and the negative influence on our nation’s future.
The normalisation and pervasiveness of ganja (throughout society, not just in the PSVs) and its scientifically confirmed, but often overlooked, specific damage to developing brains, both for first and second-hand smoke inhalation that have also become part of the travel experience, are also deeply troubling.
What mirror image do we have of ourselves? How can a student, who has been immersed in this type of behaviour just before school, often all of his/her life, attend school in the right frame of mind to learn? What role models are we exposing our children to, especially those children who are most vulnerable?
And we wonder about the indiscipline of some students? The ‘ZR culture’ is not the sole cause, of course, but serves as a powerful decades-long reinforcement of indecent, bad behaviour for our nation’s children, who then became parents themselves. For some children, this behaviour is their norm.
The ‘ZR culture’ of endemic indiscipline and indecency has become yet another crisis which our society has not properly confronted. As usual, there is a ‘lotta long talk’ on our nation’s airways. Official promises for improvements after each public incident. But no real fundamental, lasting change in regulation.
There are decent minibus owners, drivers and conductors, of course. But far too many are part of the problem. Too many private vehicle drivers are also doing nonsense as well. But PSVs do have a higher duty of care due to their numbers of passengers.
Successive governments over the decades have failed in their duty to hold PSV owners and drivers properly accountable. Daily, we road users see utter madness on our roads. We recall the horrific ‘Midnight Assassin’ accident on Black Rock Road (a ZM overtaking a minibus colliding with a Transport Board bus) which claimed the lives of three people and seriously injured several other passengers. What substantially was done then to change the system? We recall the ZR overturning in 2015 at John Beckles Drive, causing the amputation of the arm of a schoolgirl passenger. What real action was taken then to change the system?
There seems to be a belief that well-connected PSV owners have contributed to a lack of action from successive governments. When will we, the public, demand systemic change once and for all? Who will have to be killed for the resultant international public embarrassment and damage to our national brand and reputation to cause change?
We parents also have a responsibility to insist to our children that they avoid the worst PSVs — and go to school on time and in the right frame of mind. Monitoring is also essential. Yes, sometimes Transport Board buses are insufficient, peer pressure is strong, and PSVs are fun, but we parents need to be more vigilant about what our children are being exposed to. My heart breaks for those children whose parents see nothing wrong with this behaviour — that is a much harder nut to crack. We as a society do not understand how privileged we are in this regard. How many CARICOM nations provide free public transport for students?
We therefore endorse the wise counsel of the retired traffic court magistrate Reverend Bannister. He summarised what so many of us have said for decades, calling for an urgent and systemic reform of the regulation and justice system as it relates to PSVs. We too call for major reform that ensures substantive legal and financial accountability of owners and drivers, including vehicles being taken off the roads immediately for traffic law infringement, drivers losing their licences after a minimum number of driving infringements, additional resources to assist the police in the enforcement process, enhanced resources in the court system, and change in the remuneration system for drivers to lessen the need to ‘hustle’. And, of course, urgent amendments of the governing legislation, where necessary. We note that Mrs Marshall-Harris, child rights expert, has also reiterated her more than decade-long call for urgent PSV sector reform.
Immediate banning of all music on the PSVs, as called for by the Leader of the Opposition, also is a requisite first step, sending a powerful message that this government is serious about improving discipline and making the PSV environment more comfortable for passengers.
We have been assured yet again by the authorities that there will be ‘zero tolerance’ in future enforcement. We await action to match these words; real, material change to the status quo would be an incredibly powerful legacy. A government’s first priority is to the safety of our nation’s people.
We, the public, need to hold those in positions of authority accountable and insist on proactive leadership and change to the PSV system, once and for all.
We, the people of Barbados, must remember that we get the government we deserve.
Enough is enough. The time for change is past due.
Paula-Anne Moore is the spokesperson and Coordinator for the Caribbean Coalition for Exam Redress Group of Concerned Parents of Barbados.
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