Letter of the Day | Driving under the influence of society

THE EDITOR, Madam:

As road crashes and fatalities increase, the predictable response is the lament that our drivers are undisciplined and the exhortation for them to drive carefully. We are all driving under the influence of a mind-altering substance. Sometimes it is alcohol, other times it is cannabis, but more pervasive is the drug of our society and its failings.

The drug of society manifests in many forms. The enforcement environment allows for multiple infractions daily, such as speeding, running red lights, overloading, and allows individuals to accumulate hundreds of tickets without sanction. The legal environment is ponderous. The physical environment, among other things, does not effectively separate foot and pedal traffic, or animals from motorised traffic.

The quality of road surfaces, lighting, intersection design and management are often problematic. The cultural environment reveres ‘skill’, the ability to circumvent every effort at maintaining order. We have no national transport system. Individuals are free to ‘eat a food’ through entrepreneurial activity as taxi drivers and minivan owners. Individuals can ply their trade, such that a driver is on the road from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. In regulated societies there would be limits of, say, no more than five hours of continuous driving for any individual. When fatigue sets in, the likelihood of crashes increases. Young drivers who lack maturity and who would not be entrusted with the family car, are charged with the responsibility of ferrying hundreds of passengers daily.

Then there is the impact of corruption, the ability to circumvent the necessary processes to obtain various documents. There is no national medical emergency response service. Retrieval and timely transport to an appropriate medical facility is subject to chance. To be clear, road traffic crashes and fatalities are the price we pay for maintaining motorised vehicles. We cannot eliminate all losses in this regard. Any of our most guilty drivers would be model citizens within a month in a different society. They would either conform or be in jail.

There would be no ‘write or lef’’ option, or the phone call from the well-connected friend. There is no magic bullet to fix this problem. It will require a multifaceted and long-term approach. The singular focus on the driver, while well-meaning, is faulty at best. That approach will see us continue to count bodies and have us engaging in this conversation again next year.

ORVILLE NEMBHARD