There seems little stopping the carnage on the roads, and as is the case with murders, the inadequate response of the police and inappropriate attitude of citizens seem fated to continue. A report in yesterday's T&T Guardian shed some light on the reason why this is so.
In it, the head of the Traffic Branch, Senior Supt Dianand Naipaul, complained of shortages of staff, saying that out of a supposed establishment of 400, he has a mere 150 officers to do duty on the roads and highways. Obviously it becomes difficult to operate and roster such a number seven days a week and, if not 24 hours a day, surely no fewer than 18 hours, going into late night and early morning-the times when careless and senseless driving on the roads reaches its peaks.
Very disturbingly, the Traffic Branch head says that his officers, especially the better performing ones, are fair game for other police units, as they are easily transferred out of the department. But there is a particularly puzzling situation outlined by Senior Supt Naipaul. It has to do with officers who train for motorcycle duty, but then refuse assignments with the motorcycles.
"People, for the glamour of riding a motorbike, attended courses. When they are tested and succeed they are given a permit. But when told after that they would be required to work without supervision...they say 'no.'" Worse still, the Traffic Branch head says he cannot do anything about it.
Only in a government bureaucracy could such a thing occur; indeed any of the above, including the wholesale raiding of staff from such a vital department, is peculiarly characteristic of a government bureaucracy. With such a structure, organisation and management of the Traffic Branch, no wonder road patrols and close monitoring of driving on the roads are inadequate.
As an alternative to having one overall Traffic Branch, the policing in the 21st-century plan is to have a mini-traffic branch within each division of the police service. That approach, however, still does not deal with the fundamental problems of staff shortages and providing a structure that gives the senior officers command of assigning and keeping staff.
But as vital as having the staff and the systems to adequately patrol the highways and major roads, fighting an attitude which cares little for the sanctity of human life is perhaps the more intractable of the problems associated with road deaths and serious injury. The country has reached a point where life has little value for large numbers of people, and not only those of a criminal mind.
Most assuredly, a large percentage of people who drive without a sense of concern for their lives and the lives of others cannot be deemed "criminal" in the sense in which that word is normally applied. Most of them would be looked upon as respectable citizens. But once in the driver's seat they take on another persona and cause havoc on the roads.
It seems appropriate, then, to suggest that the Traffic Branch, the Licensing Division and other relevant authorities adopt a more stringent approach that takes into consideration that a vehicle is potentially a lethal weapon in the hands of a driver.
Also, these authorities need to come together to reorganise the process for granting permits to drive on the roads.
At the same time, the long-talked about system in which drivers are given "points" for careless and unsafe driving, leading inexorably to the withdrawal of a driving permit for frequent violations, has to be implemented.
