Minister of Transport Daryl Vaz says a proposal for public passenger vehicle operators to undergo retraining and certification is to be implemented, amid the carnage on the nation’s roads.

“What I realise is that the pool of drivers that we have in the public transportation system needs to be recertified. They need to be retrained. There needs to be something put in place for a certification,” he said on Thursday during a meeting of the National Road Safety Council.

“No one should be able to go to the Island Traffic Authority and get a PPV driver’s licence or a general driver’s licence to carry public passengers without a certification from the Transport Authority; that is well-advanced and it is just a matter of implementation which means that persons will be able to do an online course with and in person as part of it, which will give them the final certification,” added Vaz.

His comments follow Tuesday’s crash in his Portland Western constituency, which claimed the lives of grade nine Titchfield High School students Jajaun Wynter and Onaja Lindsay.

The schoolboys were among passengers in a taxi travelling towards Buff Bay from Port Antonio when the vehicle crashed into the back of a parked truck.

Vaz said retraining would make a significant difference in road safety.

“I believe that if we do that we will be able to at least streamline the current set of drivers that we have in the public transportation sector and of course, make sure that those who are coming into the sector are certified,” he said.