WHAT CRISIS? In the aftermath of last Wednesday’s ZR incident, the Minister, Director of the Transport Authority and numerous other persons who occupy leadership positions, suggested that this most recent incident illustrates the extent to which we have a crisis in public transportation.
This type of response is predictable and reflective of the collective horror we faced as a country last week over an incident that has cost one young student her left arm. The cause is, of course, yet to be investigated but we all presume that it is not unrelated to the lawlessness that is typical of the Private Public Service Vehicles (PPSVs). This suggestion should, of course, not fail to appreciate the normal presumption of innocence, or the possibility that the manufacturers of the vehicle might identify some mechanical fault which caused it to flip.
The challenge with the use of the word crisis arises from an appreciation that a crisis is not only catastrophic, but accompanied by a reaction that would ensure such things would never happen again. This is, of course, the aspect of our understanding that concerns me most and in this instance the lack of action is unrelated to this Government’s customary speed.
Instead, the anticipated inaction has been the preferred route of both BLP and DLP administrations that have grappled with this issue of PPSV indiscipline since the early 1980s. Those among us who are old enough would well recall the “invention” of this transportation problem after the demise of the concessionaire system and the failure of the fully public system which replaced it.
The “B” registered vehicles became popular first and were faster than the Transport Board’s, more comfortable and were not standardised. The Government then attempted to standardise the operation, but in time the less supervised private taxis morphed into a smaller version of PPSV which was even more problematic
Along the way, there have been several challenges and it is ironic that we assumed issues such as loud and lewd music were “crises”. Certainly, the concept of a crisis was placed into perspective in October of 1989 when the “Midnight Assassin” crashed along Black Rock, St Michael killing three people and injuring others both physically and psychologically.
The Government of that day correctly identified the accident and the environment of indiscipline which inspired it as a crisis, but their policy reaction has thus far not reflected the extent to which they understood the issue was indeed a crisis.
An initiative of the Government around the time of the turn of the century suggested that it might be concerned that a crisis was looming related to students who used PPSVs and were being disadvantaged in their pursuit of an education as a result. As such, the UWI was commissioned to explore such correlations and while the study has never been made public, Professor Andrew Downes recently indicated that students who used these vehicles were no worse off academically and one presumes this is why nothing further was ever heard of this matter.
Since these times, there were numerous other relatively minor incidents about which we should be concerned. Then, in January 2014, another incident occurred involving a PPSV which resulted in the death of a 62-year-old gardener and the injury of 32 other people and again we hear this word crisis and one can understand the reasons why I am yet to be convinced that either administration genuinely perceives this as a crisis.
Last Wednesday’s incident could, therefore, be considered another installment in the continual development of a problem which to the vast majority of us reached crisis proportions which are clearly yet to impact on either administration.
This crisis is almost 40 years old and has spawned social, educational, medical and physical manifestations of the central issue which speaks volumes about the importance of public transportation to the maintenance of public sanity. We can only hope that this most recent incident might generate a policy reaction consistent with the expectations that arise from a crisis.
Peter W. Wickham is a political consultant and a director of Caribbean Development Research Services (CADRES). Email: peter.w.wickham@gmail.com