Some felt “terrible”, “horrible” and or “upset” after seeing a video of a colleague being assaulted during an attempted robbery, but not one PSV operator – driver, conductors and owners, was “surprised” by the incident.
It seems that criminals have been risking, trying, and in some cases successfully robbing PSV operators for some years and according to them, their reports are fallen on deaf ears.
Wayne Hutchinson has been behind the wheel of a PSV for some 25 years now, a quarter Century, and he said he never saw anything like what he saw on that video with Tempro’s assault and attempted robbery on his 3D route taxi.
However, Hutchinson said that he was attacked himself in the past, so he can attest, that this is nothing new.
“I got attacked already. About 20 years ago, by the Seventh Days Church and School in Dalkeith, I got attacked.”
Asked if he agrees that police are not taking the complaints of PSV owners seriously as priority, since he too was in a similar situation, Hutchinson stressed, “Some police, not all. But my incident was with a gun and was by the Seventh Day School. I went to Hastings and they never got back to me.”
Having continued to work van for two decades since that incident, he contended it did not deter him, but everybody’s not him. He was a trained soldier with experience with firearms, so he said that fed in to why he was not motivated to walk away from the profession early in his journey.
Conductor Andrew told Loop News:
“Well, I was upset but I wouldn’t say I was scared.
“I din shocked. The truth is, it’s Barbados. We’ve seen worse. The other day, there was man, either two or three years back, who got shot in St Lucy and lost his life – Preacher Man, so I mean, that could have been a similar scenario there, if you understand what I mean, but it wasn’t. So I wouldn’t say it was a shock, because technically, it is nothing new.”
Danny, who has been driving for 14 years, shared:
“I wasn’t shocked but I guess that it’s a job that at some point it could happen that way, to you. So I wasn’t surprised. This could be, it is a dangerous job, because you always got money on you so it is a dangerous job.”
Driving ZR for 11 years, ‘Blues’ said that he hates that it happened to someone plying their trade legally and with honesty.
“After seeing that video, I felt terrible, real terrible. Somebody come working honestly fuh a dollar and then somebody come and try to kill them.
“Well, that is something that does happen pon a regular basis to tell yuh de truth. Some does get report but majority of the things nothing don’t really come out of it.”
Another driver who preferred to not give his name said he was not caught by surprise by the video either. “There was more than one case when drivers were shot already. I think a guy was shot out Sandy Hill [St Philip] already too. So, so, with all of these things, I wouldn’t say I was shocked.”
