EDITORIAL: Tackle recklessness head-on

The heartbreaking result of reckless driving is that innocent people are killed. The Holmwood Technical High School community in Manchester was plunged into mourning this week after three students perished in a horrific accident while on their way to school.

We share the concerns and outrage of the majority and wonder how much longer will we enable reckless drivers who seem bent on turning our roadways into killing fields. Road fatalities are unacceptably high in a small country such as ours.

From early accounts, Thursday's accident could have been avoided, and these three girls would have been on their way to fulfilling their dreams and satisfying their ambitions by exploring the world beyond the boundaries of their school in Christiana.

The accident occurred at a well-known 'black spot' in Manchester. Motorists are well aware that this calls for a cautious approach. A driver who holds the lives of passengers in his hands should be even more alert to the dangers and exercise extreme caution. Driving a vehicle requires concentration, sometimes snap decisions have to be made, and the driver has to exercise good judgement. But the reality is that many drivers of public-passenger vehicles are too stupid to make the link between speed and accidents, or even to realise that fast driving puts everyone at risk.

We have seen this scene over and over - mangled mess, twisted metal mixed with the flesh and limbs of the dead and wounded. And there is the grim tally of more than 300 road deaths every year for the last few years. Will this be another nine-day wonder? Are there enough persons concerned about the carnage on our roads to tackle this menace head-on?

bad road culture

Our road culture is one that embraces red-light running, speeding (which explains why motorists will warn each other about speed traps), and driving with aggression. We have become discourteous and even abusive of other users of the road. Overall, people tend to have a greater tolerance for a man who is addicted to speed and drives his car recklessly and kills three persons than for a gunman who shoots three people to death.

Our highways have improved considerably over the last few years, and public-passenger buses now have greater capabilities in terms of their capacity and speed. Add to that a driver who wants to give full expression to his need for speed, and we have the blueprint for carnage on our roads.

Sadly, road death is not the end of the story. We often never hear about the victims who survived crashes but who are severely injured and are left to continue their lives in misery, paying a lifelong penalty for someone's poor judgement.

This carnage has to stop. And it requires action to rein in the reckless drivers who continue to break the law and ignore traffic rules. Enforcement has to be unrelenting and punishment harsh if we are to succeed.

We want to see more vigilant policing on our roads. We fully support the introduction of surveillance cameras, breathalyser tests, enforcement of the seat-belt law and speed limits, and whatever else is required to make our roads safe. It may even mean using technology to curb the speed limit of passenger buses so they can no longer hurtle down our highways to demonstrate how many horses are under their bonnet.

But none of these will work unless there is a change in attitude by users of the road. We must recognise that recklessness will lead to death and disability.

We certainly don't need any more incidents like these.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.