The As­so­ci­a­tion of Maxi Taxi Op­er­a­tors is call­ing on the Gov­ern­ment to crack down on 'PH' dri­vers, fol­low­ing the trag­ic death of 12-year-old Mer­cedez Layne, whose life was cut short in cir­cum­stances linked to a PH (pri­vate hire) taxi dri­ver.

Last week, the as­so­ci­a­tion shut down their op­er­a­tions be­tween Mon­day and Wednes­day, cit­ing sev­er­al is­sues they say have been un­ad­dressed by the Min­istry of Trans­port. One of those is­sues has been PH taxi dri­vers op­er­at­ing on many of their routes.

In a state­ment last night, as­so­ci­a­tion sec­re­tary Vick­ash Kissoon­dath ex­pressed deep sor­row over the in­ci­dent and re­newed their call for ur­gent col­lab­o­ra­tion among au­thor­i­ties to ad­dress what it de­scribes as a grow­ing threat to pub­lic safe­ty.

Kissoon­dath re­vealed that last week dur­ing their protest ac­tion, rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the as­so­ci­a­tion had raised con­cerns about the PH is­sue when they met with Min­is­ter of Trans­port Eli Za­k­our. How­ev­er, he said they were told by Za­k­our that the mat­ter fell out­side of his ju­ris­dic­tion and was strict­ly a law en­force­ment re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.

“Min­is­ter, we are not plac­ing blame on you. Let that be clear,” Kissoon­dath said.

“How­ev­er, lead­er­ship re­quires vi­sion, col­lab­o­ra­tion, and proac­tive ac­tion. When con­cerns are raised and not ad­dressed with ur­gency, the con­se­quences can be dev­as­tat­ing.”

The as­so­ci­a­tion em­pha­sised that the loss of young Mer­cedez un­der­scores the ur­gent need for co­or­di­nat­ed ef­forts across gov­ern­ment agen­cies.

“Who is re­spon­si­ble for pro­tect­ing our na­tion’s youth? How are par­ents, fam­i­lies, and cit­i­zens ex­pect­ed to feel when in­no­cent lives are lost un­der such cir­cum­stances?” Kissoon­dath asked.

The state­ment stressed that chil­dren are the na­tion’s fu­ture and de­serve to be safe and pro­tect­ed. It called on all rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers, in­clud­ing law en­force­ment, trans­port au­thor­i­ties and com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers to work to­geth­er to pre­vent fur­ther tragedies.

“We call on all rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties and stake­hold­ers to ad­dress this is­sue be­fore an­oth­er fam­i­ly is forced to en­dure such a heart­break­ing loss,” the As­so­ci­a­tion urged.

The death of Mer­cedez has sent shock­waves through the coun­try, ig­nit­ing re­newed de­bate about the dan­gers posed by un­reg­u­lat­ed PH op­er­a­tions. She was found dead in Erin on Sun­day, af­ter she dis­ap­peared af­ter be­ing placed in a PH car for a five-minute ride to her par­ent's home by her grand­fa­ther on Sat­ur­day.

“Pro­tect our chil­dren. Pro­tect our fu­ture,” Kissoon­dath con­clud­ed.