The Barbados Road Safety Association says the call for a road safety czar by police is unwarranted.
President Sharmane Roland Bowen said in a release yesterday that it was not the answer to the problems relating to fatalities and serious accidents which the island was experiencing.
“What are the police trying to say? Are they looking for someone to do their jobs for them or are they trying to shift the blame?” she asked, adding that the police seemed to be mainly targeting public service vehicles (PSVs).
“The Royal Barbados Police Force needs to make their presence felt on our roads every day and to enforce the traffic laws . . . They need to concentrate their efforts on the entire road network. Not one PSV was involved in a road fatality this year.”
The Road Safety Association also called on police to conduct more vehicle checks along with the officers of the Ministry of Transport and Works to get illegal and unsafe vehicles off the roads.
Traffic offences
The association has called for legislation dealing with traffic offences with sentences that fit the gravity of the offence; a fixed penalty system that deals with the speedy adjudication of violations, and the demerit points system to single out and take repeated traffic offenders off the roads.
It noted: “Such can only be achieved through rigid and extensive enforcement by tightening the noose on reckless and hostile motorists through a set of deterrent measures and aggressive traffic enforcement by the police.
“Most accidents are attributed to driver error which many times are caused by drivers committing traffic offences that are too often undetected.
“Drivers need to be sent a clear message that this country will not sit back and allow them to control our roads, and no czar can do this.” (MB/PR)
