More young students critically injured by another ZR maniac driver.
14 year old student Zakiyah DeFreitas lost her left hand and 21 others received lesser injuries when a ZR van overturned in The City yesterday. The van flipped near the entrance to the nursery Drive Terminal.
Twenty-two students in a ZR van? Of course it overturned at the slightest provocation. Top heavy, overloaded, too fast. Half the time driven by maniacs with dozens of convictions – or in the case of ZR driver Cyril O’Bryan Archer one hundred and ninety-eight driving convictions prior to being found guilty of dangerous driving in the death of bicyclist Errol Thornhill on route taxi AR42 in 2010.
Insurance? What’s that? Half the ZR vans don’t have insurance and the police don’t seem to care.
Yesterday’s incident is only the latest. More will follow next month. It’s been this way for a decade or more. TripAdvisor calls ZR Drivers “Hustling Pimps“.
Our leaders don’t care, and don’t do anything to stop the slaughter.
Photo courtesy of The Nation
Barbados Free Press 
SCHOOL OPEN DRIVE SAFE
Why are these School kids in a ZR ??? Was the cradle rocking??? Both Students and driver should be heavily punished. Sorry for the young lady that has lost her hand.
As soon as it can be determined if the ZR carried the necessary Third Party Insurance for its passengers AND THAT THE INSURANCE COMPANY HAS ADMITTED LIABILITY the terrible suffering will be alleviated by knowing she may be able to have a prosthesis on her left arm! In the event there is no insurance, BARBADIANS MUST IMMEDIATELY START A MEDICAL FUND FOR THIS UNFORTUNATE CHILD.
Such fund must be managed by Five HONEST RESPONSIBLE MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY – an account opened at a Bank and the account number publicised heavily, ALONG WITH THE NAMES OF THE FIVE FUND MANAGERS.
I WOULD EXPECT THAT EVERY INSURANCE COMPANY ON THE ISLAND WOULD GIVE $25,000.00 each, IMMEDIATELY.
I had a contributor make a similar lament 5 years ago, are no MP’s listening because their secondary incomes may emanate from these avenues? http://www.bajanreporter.com/2010/02/devils-advocate-2-insane-zr-driver-lock-him-up-in-dodds-throw-away-the-key-never-let-him-hold-a-barbados-drivers-licence-ever-again/
“Our leaders don’t care, and don’t do anything to stop the slaughter.”
Never truer words spoken.
Earlier this year we were in Barbados. We usually stay near the Kentucky Fried outlet on the main drag down from Bridgetown to the Gap. This road is plagued by ZR vans – packing ’em in. We have noticed that the idiots get more aggressive every year – pimps, drivers, cash-men, all. We have even had drivers drinking from a brown paper bag – you know what I mean. Are they all on drugs – likely. One day we were diverted off the coast road. Apparently a yellow bus had over-turned ahead and there were numerous casualties. Barbados is fast becoming a no go destination. (This post will be added to TripAdvisor).
@SB
Good luck trying to reprimand Barbados or a Bajan, they all cannot see the forest for the trees. When Bajans finally/if they wake up to reality it’s going to be too late, anarchy is already well entrenched.
The ZR’s are chaos introduced into an otherwise wonderful and magical place called Barbados.
My wife and I rode 3 times on ZR taxis and the experience was always frighteningly the same: fear, fear, fear. Never again.
Why do the authorities allow this? Terrible!
Matthews Ricardo Daniel, 40, of Licorish Village, My Lord’s Hill, St Michael was remanded to Dodds until July 9 after he appeared in Traffic Court today before Magistrate Graveney Bannister. He was not required to plead to the four indictable charges of furious driving; dangerous driving; driving without due care and attention and driving without reasonable consideration for other persons using the road. The prosecution objected to bail on the grounds that the case had attracted major public interest and one of the passengers was currently in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in serious condition.
Matthews lost that poor girl her hand. Could have been any of the ZR drivers though, they are all a bad lot, every one of them.
Sorry to hear about the girl’s hand. The problem is much larger than this one driver. From what I’ve seen most of the ZR taxis are driven by maniacs.
Is it true that many of the licenses are held by police and politicians? Why is that not a conflict of interest? Is it allowed in Barbados?
Went on a ZR once and that was enough. Barbados is not what it was 15 years ago when we first started spending our winters there, but we love the people we know and it is safe enough so we return every year. Must clean up the trash though. getting very bad.