MAVIS BECKLES – How many more must die?

You know how long, and how many times I was writing ’bout the danger dat people are exposed tuh pon dat Spring Garden Highway evah single day? You know how many times I say dat the people in authority gine wait ’til more people get lick up and kill pon dat highway before duh do something bout it?Well poor Mr Briggs had tuh come home from Canada, his adopted home, tuh lose his life pon the said same Spring Garden Highway.And now, only now, ya could hear the Minister of Transport and Works John Boyce talking ’bout putting lights pon Spring Garden. Dat is so sad, so very sad; but this is the way ’bout here does operate all the time – it never fails.Look, you think dat dat man had any right losing his life just so? He and  all the rest o’ people, including children who lost duh lives while trying tuh  scamper cross the road in a effort tuh beat the oncoming traffic? I gine tell you the truth now: I does use dat road a lot but leh me tell ya, if evah I see anybody attempting tuh get cross, I does got my hand out through my window and flagging down the traffic flying coming behind me tuh leh dem know dat I stopping; otherwise I know, nuhbody ain’t gotta tell me dat duh got some drivers who would fly past me like lightning and lick up the poor people who only trying tuh get from one side o’ the road tuh the next.Things like these does really get me vex, hear? I heard dem talking ’bout underpass, but nuh underpass ain’t gine work down there because evahbody know dat the land down there is reclaimed land, so the only alternative is an overpass, which I have been preaching ’bout since Adam was a lad. So how many more people gotta dead pon dat road before the Government do something ’bout it? John King got a song name How Many More, and I gine ask again: how many more, Mr Boyce?But dat ain’t the only thing ’bout here dat keep happening and nuhbody ain’t seem tuh be doing one thing ’bout it ya know. It is the amount o’ drivers who all of a sudden decide dat dem ain’t stopping at nuh kinda red traffic lights. These people like duh doan believe dat dat colour applies tuh dem.I have said this before and I will say it again tuh drivers: whenever you are waiting at a traffic light and it turns tuh green, just make sure dat you wait a few more seconds before you move off, hear wha’ I tell ya? Tek my foolish advice; I ain’t gine put you wrong, ’cause look, I have seen it happen so many times recently as your light changes and you move off, a car or a truck is right there in front o’ you, and of course you got tuh hit dem brakes hard in order not tuh run in the side o’ the vehicle in front o’ you, or I think duh does call it, broadside the body.I find dat nowadays motorists does be just doing as duh like, when duh like and where duh like; duh doan seem tuh have any kinda regard fuh anybody else pon the road. When you driving pon the highway, although it does happen pon all the roads, the highway is the place where some people decide dat duh just cahn wait, like duh believe dat something getting way from dem and some o’ dem would do some o’ the most daring things like darting cross in front o’ you like duh gine mad and ain’t got nuh regard fuh anybody else pon the road. And the last thing I gine say and I have said it before. Wunna could talk all ovah wunna face, wunna got tuh come back tuh the flyovers ’cause all like now so the roads shouldn’t be suh crowded ’cause the schoolchildren pon vacation but traffic still back-up all over the place all day long. I just waiting tuh see how it turns out. •Mavis Beckles was born and raised in The Orleans. She has an opinion on everything.