BRSA: Be careful
AS the last lap and biggest weekend of the 2018 Crop Over season approaches, the President of the Barbados Road Safety Association (BRSA) is concerned that people responsible for causing deadly road accidents seem to be getting away without having to answer to the law.
Thus far for 2018, Barbados has recorded 20 road fatalities. BRSA President Charmaine Roland-Bowen, who holds the view that most of the accidents that lead to the deaths could be avoided, said it is time that persons responsible for causing the accidents, feel the full weight of the law.
She said the reality stands in Barbados that persons responsible for endangering, and causing the lives of others on the roads, due to reckless driving, are not made to face the law court.
“You will see that most accidents happen when people violate, or break the traffic laws. On the other hand now you will get people go out there breaking traffic laws, and cause no accidents, but they gobefore the court because Police might have seen them. But where breaking a traffic law results in a a serious accident, nothing happens. This needs to be looked at, these people need to be prosecuted. We need to grab the opportunity that we have to sit down these people and educate these people so that they don’t go out there and do it again,” Roland-Bowen said.
According to the President, legislation is in place to deal with persons breaking road traffic laws. She made reference to the Road Traffic Amendments that came into effect between the period of 2017 and this year.
Roland-Bowen said, she strongly believes that the Amendments sitting in a filing cabinet, or on a desk, “is not helping anyone out there”. “And, as a society, if we fail to act that means we are encouraging what is happening. Something needs to be done. This is Crop Over season, and I thought that that legislation, where it is related to breathalyzer and drunk driving, that it would be further than where it is. We had a meeting with the new Minister of Transport [Dr William Duguid], a few weeks back, and we were informed that that breathalyzer is in the hands of the Police, they are sourcing proper equipment and so on,” Roland-Bowen said.
“But, you know we can offer our assistance if need be because we have contacts with some countries that would have used the breathalyzer that can help. Why is it taking so long? In the meantime, people are losing their lives. I am not saying that these accidents are the cause of drunk driving, but they can be a part of it. So every screw needs to be tightened. If that breathalyzer is one of them, that needs to be tightened. If distracted driving is one, that needs to be tightened. To me, this is a critical mission because nothing is more important than a life. If we are out there and we don’t see a life as important then something is definitely wrong,” she added.
Recently, Commissioner of Police spoke about the possibility of outlawing some of the motorcycles, particularly dirt bikes, which are causing a headache for the members of the Royal Barbados Police Force.
Roland-Bowen said her Association fully supports the members of the Force in their efforts to keep the roads safe. She said the Association is behind the effort to rid the roads of dangerous activities.
The President also took the opportunity to address concerns regarding the number of trees being planted on the country’s highways. On that note, she said Barbados needs to pay attention to the Safe Systems Approach which looks at creating forgiving road sides. “In the event that a human makes an error, and they crash, that it does not cause them to lose their lives or be seriously injured. We are looking at beautifying Barbados. But if we continue to plant trees along the highway, we can pose a threat. You would find that most countries desist from doing that because if a vehicle loses control, it would go into that obstacle. So we just would like Barbados to follow best practices, follow what other countries are doing to save lives, and implement some of them here, so that some of our lives would be saved,” she said. (AH)