Garth Rattray | Is passenger negligence contributing to accidents?

I am sick and tired of hearing about, reading about and seeing online images of the [unnecessary] widespread carnage on our roads. The sight of vehicles mangled beyond recognition, and of human bodies that are severely injured, and/or dead, slumped inside vehicles, and/or strewn around crash sites has become all too common. This is especially true at this time of the year.

Every time that this sort of catastrophe happens, I wonder what the people inside the vehicle were doing just before the horrible crash. When reporting a crash, one of the first questions that insurance companies used to ask on their crash report form was, “Did you sound your horn?” That question was meant to ascertain whether or not the driver did anything at all to avoid the crash, because doing nothing in the face of possible danger might be considered contributory negligence.

I also recall my mother recounting a time, long before I was born, when she was on a country bus and the driver was driving too fast for her. She asked him to slow down, but the rest of the passengers were silently ‘enjoying’ the ride, so the driver had the gall to threaten to put her off in the middle of nowhere.

The last time that I hired a vehicle to take my wife and me home from the Norman Manley International Airport, it was obvious that the driver wanted to take us to our destination, then hurry back to pick up another fare. As soon as he began to speed up and tailgate the car in front of us, I turned towards him and, with the sternest voice and expression that I could muster, I said, “I am in no hurry boss man!” That is all it took for him the get the message. He slowed down and the rest of the journey was comfortable and uneventful.

EACH IS PRECIOUS

Any passenger in any vehicle has the right to be driven with extreme care. Passengers are not inanimate cargo; each is precious. They are human beings with regular lives, relatives, family, and friends. However, I daresay that many PPV drivers treat their passengers as if they are only fares that they need to get rid of as quickly as possible in order to pick up more fares. Consequently, some drivers speed, break all the laws of the road, endanger other road-users, and generally create havoc on our roads. And, sadly, many drivers of private motor vehicles have taken to copying taxi drivers because they notice that most taxi drivers are merrily getting away with flouting all the traffic laws.

Shockingly, many passengers are so impatient to get where they want to go, and are so happy to go for a joy ride that ignores all other drivers, while providing them with the thrill of danger, that they allow themselves to be put at significant risk by the idiot behind the wheel. Their inaction in the face of risky driving, contributes to crashes. In fact, some passengers are complicit because they egg on the crazy drivers and bully complainers into silence. Other passengers are too timid or afraid to speak out when they feel endangered. The combination of speeding, driving ‘out and bad’, showing off, and submissive, compliant, impatient passengers sometimes results in crashes and horrendous carnage.

Passengers who remain silent, when drivers are behaving badly and possibly dangerously, should be considered contributory negligent if they brought claims before insurance companies, which will not cover you when you go for a drive in a race car on a track although it is safer than using public transport.

CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE

Contributory negligence is “a doctrine of common law that if a person was injured in part due to his/her own negligence (his/her negligence “contributed” to the accident)”. I therefore wonder why insurance companies do not ask injured passengers and/or witnesses, which victim(s) spoke up when the operator was breaking the law, or driving in such a manner that it was obviously putting everyone at risk of injury or death.

Insurance companies paid out just under $14.8 billion in motor vehicle-related claims in 2021, which was almost 1,700 times more than claims that fell into the “all others” category. Such enormous pay-outs for motor vehicle-related matters must be extremely daunting for companies that offer auto insurance.

The injuries and deaths of our citizens are emotionally, socially and economically distressing. The Ministry of Health and Wellness could not provide data on the cost of caring for victims of motor vehicle crashes. However, from the emergency care, to investigations, interventions, surgery, physical therapy, and follow-up needed for so many traumatic crashes, the figure must be astounding. Aside from the use of scarce funds for almost totally preventable trauma, there is the matter of the necessary appropriation of skilled healthcare workers, operating theatres and ward beds to treat crash victims. These take away from the care that other patients, including cancer patients, receive.

I don’t expect that increasing traffic fines will significantly reduce crashes and save lives; so, aside from stricter policing, innovative strategies for apprehending law-breakers, and re-educating bad drivers, we need to teach “use of the road” from very early in all schools. Additionally, the reach and power of media, including social media, should be heavily used to educate and increase compliance with traffic laws.

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