TWO of five persons injured in a taxi crash along the Portmore leg of Highway 2000 remained in hospital up until press time last night.

The two are said to be the driver and a female passenger, who were being treated for a broken rib and hand, respectively. The other three injured persons were treated and released from hospital late yesterday.

According to the police, the accident happened at about 6:00 am when the vehicle got out of control and crashed into a rail along the busy highway. The accident resulted in a massive pile-up of traffic which lasted for several hours.

Yesterday, head of the Island Traffic Authority Senior Superintendent Radcliffe Lewis raised concerns about the growing number of serious accidents involving public passenger vehicles and announced plans to the keep check on the driving records of bus and taxi operators.

"The police will be working with the Transport Authority to start a compulsory registration for all public transport operators," said Lewis, noting that under the programme all taxi and bus operators would be required to register with an association.

"And these associations will be required to collect driving records of all the operators registered under the association," added SSP Lewis. "This way the police will be able to track these operators and to monitor their driving history."

Yesterday's accident happened nearly two weeks after a bus mowed down a crowd of people at a bus stop on Half-Way-Tree Road in St Andrew, resulting in the death of 18-year-old Mellisa Thompson, a student of the Institute of Academic Excellence.

Up until yesterday the police had not tracked down the driver of the vehicle, whom it was said had no licence to do so.