Beaten maxi driver's brother: He won't work for schools again

Narindra Singh, brother of route three maxi driver Varindra Singh, who was beaten by a group of schoolchildren this week, says his brother is at home recovering slowly.

He said it has taken a deep mental and emotional toll on their family.

On Monday, the driver was attacked by students of the Carapichaima East and Carapichaima West Secondary Schools after he tried to protect one of his passengers. He intervened using a spanner, but the students teamed up and beat up both Singh and student Rasheed Lal.

Videos of the incident have since gone viral on social media. The videos show the two on the ground being kicked and badly beaten.

Narindra Singh said his brother, by doctors' orders, cannot drive for the next six months.

"He's coming along very very slowly. From the preliminary examinations, his nose is broken and his joints are damaged."

Asked by Newsday if he had seen the video footage of the incident, he said yes.

"As an older brother, honestly, I (didn't) know what emotions to express. Should it be anger? Should it be concern?

"I'm not sure. Because as an older brother, like a parent, your first concern is to make sure that individual is okay. And that's out priority right now – to make sure that he heals, that he's able to come out of this. Emotion-wise, it's difficult."

He said his brother has been a maxi taxi driver for five-seven years. But he said when he recovers, Varindra will no longer be working with or for schools.

He said his brother is a hard-working but quiet man.

"So for him to react like this, it means he would have had to know that danger was present.

"A lot of people are bashing him for reacting in that way, but in his words, when a (child) is in his vehicle, he is legally responsible for them until he hands them back over to the parents.

"We always say as a society we're failing our children, our parents and we failing this one and we failing that one – but as a society we're failing. We need to pick it up, we need to move forward...We need to make things better."

He said none of the parents of any of the schoolchildren involved had contacted his family.

As for his brother being out of a job for the next six months, he said, "The family will pick up the slack...That's as much as we can do at this point. We just have to take it one day at a time and see how it plays off."