00:00Reports are that the passengers and the driver of a red band maxi were robbed by armed gunmen
00:06around six this morning along the priority bus route in the Beetham area.
00:11The Route 2 Maxi Taxi Association says this is at least the second incident for 2025 and
00:18it expects even more incidents over the carnival period.
00:22Apparently all the passengers on the vehicle were robbed and we leave some of the valuables
00:30and we find that situation very, very unfortunate.
00:33We experience it seasonal, so it will have the carnival season, it will have the Christmas
00:38season, it will have even the August holidays when school is about to open and when events
00:44come up, any big concert.
00:46So it's a long span of events from time to time, it does happen.
00:52Following the incident, some members of the public criticised maxi taxi drivers for supposedly
00:58having a lack of discernment.
01:01Now I saw some people on Facebook criticising drivers and saying the drivers like to pick
01:06up all kinds of characters, how do you respond to that?
01:10It kind of went difficult to really truly make a proper assessment of an individual
01:15because I have known people who have done robberies on maxis, well-dressed, with shirt
01:22and tie, well-dressed.
01:24I know an executive member who presently is serving as an executive member, people have
01:28robbed that guy who had a long-sleeved shirt with a tie and put a knife in.
01:34So it's difficult to make this quick assessment of people and again, sometimes you might be
01:39making the wrong assessment of an individual, it's very challenging.
01:43He further notes there is no particular area or time where these incidents tend to occur.
01:49The association is however calling on the police service to allocate some plainclothes
01:55officers to monitor the travelling public.
01:57We have asked the transit and we have asked the TTPS and we have made recommendations
02:03on different levels where it is concerned to have more stop and searches and also plain
02:09police, plainclothes police officers ride the maxis.
02:12And whilst they are riding the maxis, they could at any point in time initiate a stop and search.
02:18The association is also lobbying for infrastructure to aid in securing the transit hub.
02:24I don't want to use the strong word as irresponsible, let me say forward thinking, let me use that
02:29word, that you have the main transit hub, probably the main transit hub in the Caribbean,
02:33the largest in the Caribbean, that you don't have scanners heading into the carnival season
02:38where you have all this traffic coming out of city gates.
02:42It should have carnars where you would have mitigated a lot of weapons, knives and even
02:47guns to the extent when you come out of a maxi to enter the capital city and also vice
02:52versa.
02:53People coming out of the capital city, coming into a maxi, if you have scanners, they will
02:57not be able to come onto the maxi with any type of weapon.
03:01The association says over 2,000 commuters utilise the transport hub every day.
03:07Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
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