The ZR drivers did not become unruly a couple of days ago; they always were. Action needed to be taken eons ago, not just two days ago.
My own very quick search on the Internet revealed that in 2013, the current Minister of Transport, like every other holder of that portfolio before him, promised that reckless driving on the roads would no longer be tolerated. In 2014 there was a call for a boycott of the ZR vans. In 2015, over a couple of months, there was a spate of accidents involving public service vehicles (PSVs), including an accident in St Thomas in which 13 passengers were injured, a mass casualty in Christ Church involving a collision between a ZR and a minibus, resulting in injury to 18 commuters.
Let’s not forget the accident in St Peter in March in which 28 commuters were injured when a Transport Board bus and minibus collided.
Successive Governments have failed to apply consistent measures to address the situation and, as usual, we only jump into gear when a crisis arises. The current protestations, promised actions and proffered solutions that are suddenly coming from all quarters might all be quite justified and necessary. However, they are perhaps a bit too late for the child and all of the others who would have suffered injury in the most recent accident.
Indeed, while I do agree that the driver and perhaps owner should be held accountable for what happened, I would also hope that this provides a moment of reflection by all of those who were promising to act on this issue some time ago. Actually, I hope it sparks public debate on how we can get some laws to hold relevant policymakers and other stakeholders culpable for things they promise and do not do.
Importantly, I would suggest that we do not become so caught up in our outrage over the recent incident that we lose sight of the fact that indiscipline and bad driving do not only exist among ZR and minibus drivers.
While I have no evidence except anecdotal, there is a suggestion that there are some bus drivers who could do with lessons in safer driving as well. I would hope that whatever standards are introduced would be applied and enforced across the board with the same level of firmness. Perhaps it might be useful to take a good, long, hard look at the entire public transport sector and assess how we can make it safer and more efficient.
Lessons to be learnt
Outside of this, though, I hope that the incident was a personal wake-up call for the current set of ZR drivers, the associations that represent them and the owners of the vehicles.
Admittedly, while not all of them should be condemned, there are perhaps a good few who have never been introduced to good common sense and are just plain incapable of exercising due care for anyone, including themselves. The fact that the lives of so many children could have been lost should weigh heavily on everyone and serve as an impetus for them to clean up their act, which is unlikely – but we can hope.
I am interested in finding out who will have to pay for the elaborate system of checks and balances which I am sure will now be put in place hurriedly (but which will most likely be short-lived).
Clearly, the owners and representative associations should shoulder some financial responsibility for this. I believe that they should be taking the lead in ensuring that the image and reputation of the sector is best represented. This makes good business sense for everyone.
Instead, it seems that in this particular sector, bad behaviour and unruliness are glorified and encouraged, and, as usual, the public pays the price. I believe that unless we find some long-term solutions the price could prove extremely difficult to bear.