Forde ‘angry, upset’ over PSV lawlessness

Declaring that she is angry and upset, Minister of Elder Affairs and People Empowerment Cynthia Forde lambasted bad elements who have taken over Public Service Vehicles (PSV).

Forde, who was speaking during the Public Transport (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill in the House of Assembly, said something must be done to address the prevailing reckless and indifferent behaviour.

She told the House: “You can see 25 to 30 children packed in those buses. You see drivers smoking the weed, drinking the alcohol, cursing everybody and blocking the roads. People are exposed to that behaviour wherever they are going in this country. It is wrong and I cannot say it in any forum but to tell everybody in Barbados how angry and upset I am.”

The minister said she welcomed the bill which seeks to empower the Transport Authority with new regulations that include a three-strikes rule that could lead to the ouster of repeat offenders from the PSV industry. She spoke out against the danger that she said innocent commuters face at the hands of some drivers.

Forde said: “The indiscipline is so [rife] that people have to jump out of the road, skip out of the road in order to save their lives. They do not respect pedestrian crossings. I have a problem with the speeding and the accidents.

“Yes, attorneys at law will get jobs –  there is nothing wrong with that. That is their training. That is their responsibility. But why must the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and other institutions be saddled with people with critical injuries? These are the services that the taxpayers are paying for. Sometimes you go and you waiting in [Accident and Emergency] for hours because of an accident of that nature. It is wrong and we need to have it corrected.”

The MP for St Thomas made specific reference to the June 2015 accident when ZR 125 overturned while travelling along Nursery Drive that caused 14-year-old Springer student Zakiyah Defreitas’s hand to be crushed.

She said: “We see it every day. A little girl lost her hand in the above bus-stand we call it the Fairchild Street Bus-stand or the River Bus-stand got her hand cut off because of foolishness again.

“I am really, really, very, very upset.”

The former educator said, while people lament about the youth, owners must be held accountable as well.

“What is happening in this place. Then we want to know how the youth gets so. The youth get so because those persons who are adults who should be treating to matters of that nature are just overlooking it. The bus owners are people in authority that are high society people who are not treating to the matter.”

Saying she will continue to speak out against the indiscipline, Forde said when she previously spoke about the issue in the House of Assembly she was subjected to a vicious tongue-lashing.

“I spoke about the PSVs once here in Parliament and by the time I got going through Jackson I was cursed beyond my burial ground. I am not afraid, anybody who knows me and anybody who should stand up for what is correct, proper and what is righteousness will speak out against it.”

She suggested that a flat salary be paid instead of PSV workers having to hustle to make a living. But she was critical of the number of infractions some repeat offenders had before the law courts.

The Social Affairs Minister told lawmakers: “I am thankful for the Attorney General and the efforts this Government is doing for putting other judges and magistrates and systems in place for the fast-tracking of those hundreds of cases no ZR man or minibus driver should be going to court with a hundred cases, a hundred reports.”