ROAD CAUTION APPEAL

With just a few days remaining in 2017, the Barbados Road Safety Association (BRSA) is urging Barbadians to be extra careful on the roads during the holidays, to help ensure that there are no more fatalities recorded this year.

In an interview with The Barbados Advocate, President of the BRSA, Sharmane Roland-Bowen lamented that with 27 road fatalities recorded already for the year, it is three times the number recorded in 2016, which at the time was the lowest number of road deaths for Barbados in decades. The road safety advocate is concerned that unless road users exercise greater caution, the country would fail to meet the goal of reducing and stabilising road fatalities to fewer than 20 per year, by the end of United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety which ends in 2020.

“Twenty-seven is a lot, too much; it is three times the amount and that is serious. This is not something to take lightly, we have to be more alert and we have to be on guard. We would see when most collisions occur it is because someone broke the traffic laws in some way, doing what they should not be doing whether it is speeding, driving too fast for the condition, driving under the influence or driving distracted. All drivers can make a conscious effort not to do those things,” she said.

With that in mind, she made a call for drivers to take note of the five primary causes of road fatalities – alcohol and driving, not wearing seatbelts, speeding, driving while distracted and fatigue, so as not to become one of the fatal five statistics. Moreover, she is advising persons as they attend events this Yuletide season as well as next weekend, as we usher in the New Year, not to get behind the wheel if they consume any amount of alcohol, as even one drink can impair them.

“Each driver has a responsibility to the others on the road not to put their lives in danger. So, we are not telling people not to drink, but that if they do, make sure that they have a designated driver to ensure they can make it safely home. Also we know that persons are going to be busy over the next few days and we certainly do not want them to be driving tired resulting in them being involved in a collision or being the cause of one,” she added. (JRT)