The Route 3 Maxi Taxi As­so­ci­a­tion is warn­ing com­muters, es­pe­cial­ly par­ents of school chil­dren, against trav­el­ling in PH maxi taxis and taxis. The cau­tion fol­lows an ac­ci­dent in­volv­ing a white pan­el van trans­port­ing school­child­ren in Savonet­ta on Mon­day.

A spokesman for the as­so­ci­a­tion said it is not mere­ly that PH dri­vers are break­ing the law, but their mo­tor ve­hi­cle in­sur­ance does not cov­er the pas­sen­gers. He said pan­el vans with­out bands are not reg­is­tered maxi-taxis and do not pos­sess the req­ui­site in­sur­ance.

A re­port stat­ed that the 32-year-old dri­ver of a white Nis­san Car­a­van pan­el van, reg­is­tered for pri­vate use, re­port­ed to po­lice that she was dri­ving north along the South­ern Main Road around 7.25 am. On reach­ing a de­pres­sion in the road, the ve­hi­cle swerved left. She steered right but lost con­trol. The van skid­ded off the road and flipped on­to its hood, caus­ing in­jury to the dri­ver and sev­er­al stu­dents on their way to school. Fire of­fi­cers from Savonet­ta and Cou­va, po­lice and para­medics re­spond­ed and took the oc­cu­pants to the Cou­va Dis­trict Health Fa­cil­i­ty. Doc­tors trans­ferred sev­en stu­dents, ages six to 14, to the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, as they suf­fered in­juries to their arms, heads, necks, knees and chests. Doc­tors dis­charged all but one girl, who they kept for ob­ser­va­tion. In­ves­ti­ga­tors are still gath­er­ing in­for­ma­tion from wit­ness­es.

Due to the lev­el of crime and at­tacks from PH maxi taxi dri­vers, the as­so­ci­a­tion spokesman asked for anonymi­ty.

“Once a pan­el van is la­belled as ‘P’, it is on­ly reg­is­tered for sev­en pas­sen­gers and the dri­ver. That is eight peo­ple in the ve­hi­cle. How­ev­er, these guys have full 13 or 14 seats in their ve­hi­cles and are ply­ing for hire as reg­u­lar maxi taxis. In the event of an ac­ci­dent, there is noth­ing that can be done as the ve­hi­cle is al­ready used con­trary to reg­is­tra­tion.”

The as­so­ci­a­tion said ve­hi­cle reg­is­tra­tion be­gin­ning with the let­ter P means it is for pri­vate use, whether for a com­pa­ny or per­son­al. Those with ve­hi­cle reg­is­tra­tion be­gin­ning with “T” can on­ly have a dri­ver and two pas­sen­gers. All taxis, maxi taxis and bus­es ply­ing for hire must have reg­is­tra­tion plates be­gin­ning with “H”. To op­er­ate a school bus, an own­er must reg­is­ter and get ap­proval from the Li­cens­ing Di­vi­sion of the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port. The school bus must al­so be in the ap­proved yel­low.

The as­so­ci­a­tion said many peo­ple are il­le­gal­ly ply­ing ve­hi­cles for hire be­tween Curepe and San Fer­nan­do. While it is un­safe, the as­so­ci­a­tion said it al­so puts bonafide maxi taxi and taxi dri­vers at a dis­ad­van­tage, as PH dri­vers do not pay for a band and the req­ui­site in­sur­ance that cov­ers dri­ves and all pas­sen­gers. A bonafide taxi or maxi taxi dri­ver must pos­sess a taxi badge, which re­quires a Cer­tifi­cate of Char­ac­ter, which helps ex­clude crim­i­nals from the in­dus­try.

“The same way there is a re­stric­tion with scrap iron deal­ers, and peo­ple protest, we might have to protest just now be­cause we have a sys­tem and no­body is ad­her­ing to it.”

The as­so­ci­a­tion sug­gest­ed that the Tran­sit Po­lice Unit de­ploy of­fi­cers on the South­ern Main Road to as­sist with stamp­ing out the il­le­gal PH taxi in­dus­try.