More needs to be done to improve road safety

With the United Nations declaring 2021-2030 the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety, a local road safety advocate is calling on the relevant authorities to play their part in ensuring that significantly more progress can be made during the coming ten years, than were achieved in the last decade.

President of the Barbados Road Safety Association (BRSA), Sharmane Roland-Bowen, indicated that while some legislative changes have been made in respect of road safety in this country, the authorities must ensure those laws are enforced, and where legislation still needs to be shored up, she is urging Government to make those changes sooner rather than later.

Roland-Bowen told The Barbados Advocate that the amendments to the Road Safety Act, which dealt the ban on the use of handheld cellphones while driving, the directive that persons riding bicycles and motorcycles must wear helmets, and breathalyser testing, was a step in the right direction, but she is concerned that persons are becoming complacent as enforcement seems low.

“If you’re not constantly vigilant, they’re going to become complacent and they’re going to go back into their bad habits. The possibility of you being caught using our cellphones and driving distracted seems low and so people take the risk and do it, putting themselves and others at risk,” she lamented.

She continued, “In the previous Decade of Action the focus was on having safer roads, safer vehicles, safer road users, as well as road safety management. Lighting on many of our roads has improved and we have seen new traffic lights and roundabouts put in place to improve traffic flow, but the Association is still concerned about the state of some of our roads and the number of potholes we are seeing continue to be a concern.”

Noting that there are other areas where Barbados has dropped the ball, she strongly believes that with commitment, dedication and resources, steps can be taken to ensure that the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety would be more successful.

“Barbados would have been one of the countries that signed onto the Decade, and even though we have the drink drive law that would have been put in place, it does not seem that it has really gotten off the ground. We are not the only ones facing such challenges – some other countries have similar situations where they have not really lived up to what they had promised to do,” she stated.

Education key

Roland-Bowen is hoping that in this coming decade greater attention will be paid to improving driver education, noting that education is a key component of road safety.

“You need to know the harm that a distracted driver can cause even as if it is you and how you can allow yourself to be a victim by driving distracted. Drivers need to be alert at all times, think ahead, plan ahead and that needs to be part of driving education if we want to produce safer drivers,” she maintained.

The BRSA president is also calling for an upgrade to the licensing system in this country, to make it more difficult for persons to get their licences. In that vein, she reiterated her call for a graduated licence programme to be introduced for new drivers, contending that restrictions should be placed on all newly licensed drivers, particularly those who are 16 years old, to help them develop good driving habits and better learn to operate the vehicles. Moreover, she is also advocating for the completion of a driver education course, of which defensive driving would be a part, to be a requirement to obtain a driver’s licence in this country.

“A licence is a privilege and not a right. People act as if it is a right, and then they go and get the licence and abuse it. We need to be more proactive than reactive, and so it is imperative that persons understand about safe road use. When drivers have a solid foundation they learn how to prevent accidents and to look out for themselves and others on the roads,” she added. (JRT)