peter.christopher@guardian.co.tt
The Government is intent on clamping down further on errant drivers as Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley announced the intention to increase the number of police officers patrolling the nation’s roadways.
The Prime Minister made the announcement during a sod-turning ceremony for the Diego Martin Pedestrian walkover at the Four Roads Government Primary School.
He said, unfortunately, there were many motorists who only conformed to road traffic laws when police were present.
“That is why the Government will take delivery of somewhere between 200 and 300 motorbikes for the Highway Patrol and other patrols of the Police Service to ensure we have effective and efficient and continuous mobile patrols on our roads.”
He added: “I won a bet once a few years ago...I told him I can drive to Port-of-Spain to San Fernando and back and not encounter a law enforcement officer, and I won the bet.
“It is against that background and that understanding of the need to patrol and enforce the road rules against those who will insist on being indisciplined that as leader of this Government I have insisted that the police put on the road more effective and immediate law enforcement because some of our citizens only understand and behave properly in the presence of the uniform or of imminent prosecution.”
But the Prime Minister also stressed that drivers also had a responsibility to adhere to the rules of the road.
“If we become more disciplined and have better signage on the roads, better road conditions better safety features overall and better exercise of discipline and law enforcement on the roads it is possible to bring road fatalities down to single figures. It does not have to be that we have to lose 100 lives a year.”
Rowley said the walkover was one of the safety features that could be introduced to reduce road fatalities.
He recalled that he lost a friend over 30 years ago when a maxi taxi crossed the median on the old Diego Martin Highway and crashed, killing a woman and her son in the process.
This memory, the Prime Minister said, to this day was vivid in his memory and served as a reminder to improve road safety in his constituency and by extension the country.
The walkover is expected to cost an estimated $10.8 million to be completed in eight months