Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 08/Aug 14:53

Tickets won’t make roads safe

THE EDITOR: The anguish never goes away. It simply goes on forever as more and more lives are lost on the nation’s roadways, especially, the deadliest strip of road – the north/south Uriah Butler Highway. In expressing deepest sympathy and condolences, the last two lives tragically lost are no different to the hundreds of bodies dismembered, mutilated, crushed and crippled; and still no comprehensive safety plan for this highway. Both the Minister of Works and the TT Ticketing Service (oops sorry...) Police Service trot the same inept narrative – slow down, don’t drink and drive, issue a ticket for a smooth tyre, or a failed inspection while the bodies just pile up. It’s like they don’t get the message that highway is unsafe for drivers at any speed. Anything can happen that a ticket or an admonishment won’t mitigate. And for all of the money wasted on creating more lanes for traffic, to make traffic, not a penny spent on making the road safer. The current minister does not believe in safety barriers, of any kind. Apparently, no one has done a safety assessment of the risk areas of the highway. So, if for one reason or the other, a driver loses control, there is nothing to prevent him or her from crossing the median, and right there you have the problem. What can be put into place to assist drivers who end up there? You can be killed if you stop to help someone, or if you stall and have to pull aside. Incidentally, given that a number of incidents take place between 11 pm and 5 am, there is hardly ever a police presence, as if it’s way past their bedtime... There has to be some kind of safety net, speaking of which, who leaves huge openings through which a car which has flipped, and is tumbling, can fall to the ground killing all in there? Why can’t openings like over the Cipiero River be covered with an iron grating? Some years ago, a young doctor was killed when his car smashed into a concrete barrier in Freeport. Whatever may have been his impairment, he did not deserve to die like that, and to make matters worse, the bits and pieces of his vehicle remained there for months as nothing was done to light the area or make it any safer like replacing the concrete and steel barriers with radian water barrels. For God’s sake, do something to save lives, save people from themselves. We are talking about loved ones - sons and daughters, fathers and mothers. Don’t just ticket in daylight and think you are improving road safety. It’s just filling government coffers with blood money. LINDA CAPILDEO St James The post Tickets won’t make roads safe appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.