THE EXCESSIVE SPEED at which public service vehicles and other large commercial automobiles ply the streets of Barbados is a threat to life and limb and the safety of other road users.
It is only a matter of time before a major catastrophe caused through excessive speeding by a large vehicle, takes the lives of multiple persons.
All motorised vehicles can wreak havoc to property and persons once out of control, and the bigger they are, the greater the danger. All drivers of vehicles need to be sensitive to careful road usage and in particular, those who drive larger and heavier ones.
The speed at which many of them are propelled through heavily trafficked areas, including those with pedestrians, is as if drivers are recklessly indifferent to all other road users. Drivers of these vehicles do not seem to understand the susceptibility of vehicles of great size and weight to inflict untold havoc once out of control.
There is little difference between the thoroughness and diligence displayed by drivers of smaller as opposed to larger vehicles. Neither one is to be excused.
When recently the head of the Emergency Ambulance Service, Dr David Byer commented on the “pro-motor sports” mentality of some drivers of ambulances, it resonated with many persons who find themselves having to take evasive action as other road users barrel down on smaller vehicles and pedestrians. He also said: “The agenda of a very small minority may be pro-motor sports and whose agenda of wondering how fast ‘new birds’ can go, should not be encouraged.”
It is not uncommon to see buses, mini-buses, ZR vehicles, trucks (including garbage trucks) and even long vehicle trailers, boring their way past other motorised road users. Of course, ZR vehicles and mini-bus drivers are the greatest offenders, hustling as they often are, for the mighty dollar without regard for any person or thing.
The decision to speed or not can no longer be left to the discretion of the individual driver. In some other countries, speed restriction mechanisms are placed in large public service vehicles, particularly because of the life-threatening danger they present to others.
If the mandate of government is to ensure the safety and security of inhabitants of our country, this should extend beyond protection of our borders and control of violence in public places, to include the right to be protected from indiscriminate use of public highways, offering relative safety on our roads.
Mechanical control of these vehicles is an alternative that should be considered before several innocent lives are senselessly destroyed through the growing indiscriminate use of our roads.
