Garth Rattray | Who will be first in 2020?

Have you ever wondered who will have the dubious distinction of being the first person killed in 2020? Everyone eventually dies. Our bodies are not meant to last forever, and we have limited control over death from other ‘natural causes’. However, death from murders and motor vehicle crashes are totally unnecessary.

Will the first to be killed be an unborn foetus, doomed to die because his/her mother was killed by a monstrous human being? Will the first murder victim be a baby or a little innocent child, who happens to be in a place and at a time where and when human slime comes to exact revenge on someone, indeed anyone? Will the first murder victim be a little girl caught in the crossfire between rival gangs? Will the first person slaughtered be a productive, law-abiding and model citizen on his/her way to work, or an honest person who is robbed by a gun-­toting bike rider?

Will our first murder victim be the subject of a contract killing just because someone is angry with him/her? Or will the first person killed by the gun be a shopkeeper trying to eke out a modest survival in these very trying economic times, who is targeted by a lazy, good-for-­nothing ‘waste-man?’ Will the first murder victim be a schoolboy with a cell phone that a reprobate wants from him, and is willing to kill him just for a J$3,000 phone? It’s possible that our country’s first murder victim will be ambushed in traffic and executed over some business deal gone bad. Or our first death could be the victim of a murder-suicide.

HURT PRIDE

It could be that the first person killed will be a woman whose jealous ex-lover becomes enraged because she has found a new romantic interest, and that hurt his overinflated, male pride. Or maybe it will be someone whose spouse lost his/her temper during a verbal ­argument, and decided to kill just for the sake of a little peace and quiet. Will the first murder ­victim for 2020 be a witness to a crime that nefarious people want kept from the authorities?

Will our first traffic death be someone who speeds to the point of losing control and crashing into an immovable object? Or will the first road death be as a result of a careless driver speeding out of control and crashing into a hapless victim? Perhaps the first automobile death will be from among the many who overtake long lines of traffic or over the continuous white line or around blind corners in the expectation that “nutt’n nah go happen”, or that the oncoming drivers must find a way to “tek weh demself”. Maybe Mother Nature will remove one of the imbeciles, who floors the gas pedal and drives any old way as if there is no one else on the road, from the gene pool.

Will the first death on the roads be a motorcyclist who exits a minor road on to a major road without stopping or looking? Will our first road death be a biker who was stupid enough not to be wearing a helmet? From what I have observed to be the new prevalent habit, the first bike death will perhaps come as a result of a biker going through the red light as if it doesn’t exist. Will our first pedestrian death be a child darting across the road? Or will it be someone on the sidewalk who is mowed down by an irresponsible driver?

At the rate that we are going, we’ll soon be experiencing 3,000 annual deaths from murders and road crashes. The first victim could be anyone. We can and must all do our part to prevent these unnecessary deaths.

Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com.