QUICK TO FUSS UP but slow to act seems to be a particularly popular Barbadian tradition and if the recently circulated video of our schoolchildren purporting to chide the driver of a ZR just before it crashed is not enough for us to take note, we have no one to blame but ourselves if we allow the standards that have built this great nation to erode even further.
This blatant breach of safety by some drivers of public service vehicles is not new to Barbados and since I am not opposed to revealing my deficiencies and mistakes, as a youngster I will admit that I was present in ZRs when the drivers “rocked the cradle” or even “walked the dog”. For many of us back then, it was considered as fun and certainly not dangerous.
It is said that young people are more likely to have a misguided view about their invincibility given their lack of experience and hence it cannot be reasonably expected that they will act responsibly in certain situations. The onus is therefore placed on the adult to exercise better judgment given our experiences and exposure to various life events. It has alreadybeen suggested that we could suspend the licences of drivers who engage in such lawlessness. We have heard that the owners of the public service vehicles should also be held accountable for driver selection.
On the flip side, others have argued that if we revoke the licences of delinquent drivers, they may turn to crime in their attempts to feed themselves and their families. I shall like to aver that recklessness has no place on our roads whatsoever. We will either have order on our roads or we will have chaos with the concomitant injuries and or fatalities.
Accordingly, I support the calls for licences to be revoked or suspended for reckless driving of any kind, public service vehicle or otherwise. Additionally I shall like to challenge us to consider if there is any fundamental difference between a pilot rocking a plane from side to side and a ZR driver rocking a route taxi from side to side. I think we can all guess what would happen to the pilot and so I must ask what makes a ZR any different. Is it not a vehicle with passengers too?
– Sean St Clair Fields
