JENSEN LA VENDE

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

Ar­rive Alive pres­i­dent Sharon In­gle­field says that while dis­tract­ed dri­ving re­mains a con­cern, re­duc­ing speed lim­its should take prece­dence over in­tro­duc­ing new reg­u­la­tions on mo­bile and wind­screen-mount­ed de­vices.

In­gle­field was re­spond­ing to Trans­port Min­is­ter Eli Za­k­our’s state­ment in the Sen­ate on Tues­day, that his min­istry is mon­i­tor­ing the in­creas­ing use of mo­bile phones and dash­board-mount­ed screens to de­ter­mine whether ad­di­tion­al reg­u­la­tions are need­ed.

Ac­cord­ing to the min­is­ter, they are con­cerned that some dri­vers are en­gag­ing in video calls, record­ing footage, and live stream­ing while be­hind the wheel.

In­gle­field said yes­ter­day that any re­view of road safe­ty laws must be guid­ed by da­ta. While reg­u­lat­ing the use of de­vices is im­por­tant, she stressed that speed re­mains the most crit­i­cal fac­tor in pre­vent­ing se­ri­ous col­li­sions.

“I know a lot of peo­ple have wind­screen-mount­ed de­vices, and in new cars, you have screens avail­able on your dash­boards. All dis­trac­tions are risky; all dis­trac­tions can cause se­ri­ous col­li­sions. But we must take a da­ta-dri­ven ap­proach to en­sure we are on the right track. In our view, speed is much more crit­i­cal at this time, es­pe­cial­ly giv­en the num­ber of se­ri­ous col­li­sions that con­tin­ue to oc­cur,” she said.

In­gle­field added that, in line with in­ter­na­tion­al best prac­tices, speed lim­its in many ar­eas—par­tic­u­lar­ly the West­ern Main Road, res­i­den­tial zones, schools, and high pedes­tri­an ar­eas—should be re­duced. She said this should take pri­or­i­ty over re­stric­tions on hands-free de­vices.

“In oth­er coun­tries, all talk­ing on cell phones and video con­fer­enc­ing while dri­ving has been banned com­plete­ly. It’s quite crazy that peo­ple are watch­ing movies or record­ing videos on their phones while dri­ving. It cer­tain­ly is a dis­trac­tion. If ban­ning it can help pre­vent col­li­sions, we ful­ly sup­port the min­is­ter,” she added.

Mo­torists shared mixed views on the is­sue. Win­ston Nages­sar sup­port­ed a full ban on mo­bile and wind­screen-mount­ed de­vices while dri­ving.

How­ev­er, Leslie Joseph ar­gued that many work­ers re­ly on nav­i­ga­tion apps dur­ing their dai­ly routes.

“They are leav­ing us with no choice. How am I sup­posed to use my phone if I can’t hold it or mount it? Peo­ple de­pend on maps to nav­i­gate the coun­try while do­ing de­liv­er­ies and oth­er work,” Joseph said.

In­gle­field main­tained that low­er­ing speed lim­its should re­main the pri­ma­ry fo­cus in the coun­try’s ef­forts to re­duce road fa­tal­i­ties and se­ri­ous col­li­sions.