IF WE JUDGE the quality of our road network – or perhaps, more appropriately, the defects in it – by the number of road fatalities recorded each year, we really do not have much to complain about. In fact, if we were to subtract the occasional “freak” tragedy that claims multiple lives, the figures with which we deal annually would be even more negligible.
Unfortunately, we cannot use fatality statistics as a sensible gauge of the quality of that network, and in a small country where we invest so much in the development of our human resources, to lose just one citizens in a traffic accident is too great a loss to tolerate.
That’s why today we join with the Barbados Road Safety Association in calling on the Government, and particularly Minister of Transport and Works Michael Lashley, to address the country on how his ministry plans to correct some of these defects.
We accept without argument that the country’s strained financial resources place limits on what the state can do, but we can’t help but get the impression that the money shortage is being compounded by our failure to prioritise projects and execute them sensibly.
It is about time that the minister gave the country an update on what is being done with lighting along the ABC Highway where hundreds of lights have not been working for several years, and every month more are added to the list. We are sure it has not escaped the minister’s attention that there are stretches hundreds of metres long where not a single light works. It is time to bring this situation to an end.
We also cannot help but notice the frequency with which traffic signals at road junctions fail and remain in “flashing mode” for weeks. Or even more often when individual bulbs fail and motorists are forced to use these junction for months by arriving at the conclusion that “if the light for opposing traffic is red, then my side with the missing light must be green”.
If we operate on the premise that these signals were installed in the first place because of dangers to road users, then there can be no justification for the prolonged exposure of motorists and pedestrians because of apparently flawed maintenance and repair programmes.
The same holds true for pedestrian crossings all over the country. We can’t help but wonder why such a low-cost, unskilled task for which all the necessary resources are readily available right here could be so difficult to efficiently execute. If each depot is responsible for a geographical area of the country, why do we continue to see pedestrian crossings deteriorate to the point where you have to be literally on top of them to see the paint?
This situation is particularly dangerous because pedestrians, satisfied that they are using a legitimate crossing, operate as though every motorist also knows this. Unfortunately, cars and trucks don’t suffer broken bones – pedestrians do.
Now add to these the virtual invasion of potholes, too many roads that are too narrow to properly accommodate the number and size of vehicles using them, overgrown bush that makes the usable portion even smaller, and general indiscipline by both pedestrians and motorists and we all should wonder how we make it through each year with so few fatalities.
Fortunately, none of these requires a study, the importation of foreign experts, a series of town hall meetings or any of the usual prescriptions. We just need to act!