With the re­open­ing of schools next week, I am re­mind­ed of an ac­ci­dent which oc­curred about two years ago in south Trinidad in­volv­ing a maxi-taxi trans­port­ing stu­dents. I wish to raise again the fol­low­ing is­sues which I did at that point in time:

n Is de­fen­sive dri­ving ed­u­ca­tion manda­to­ry for dri­vers of such au­tho­rised ve­hi­cles?

�2Are these ve­hi­cles reg­u­lar­ly in­spect­ed by the PTSC? My un­der­stand­ing is that these ve­hi­cles are con­tract­ed by the PTSC as re­port­ed by the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion.

�2 Are seat belts pro­vid­ed for all pas­sen­gers?

An eye­wit­ness ac­count by a stu­dent in­volved in the ac­ci­dent said that "some of the chil­dren fly out in­to the drain." Dri­vers must in­sist that all stu­dents wear the seat belts pro­vid­ed.

If the fu­ture of this na­tion is in the school bags of stu­dents, we must en­sure that they re­main?alive to make that fu­ture hap­pen.

Reynold Ram­nar­i­nesingh

Via e-mail