Dear Editor,
The writer got a driver’s licence in 1958 after rigid testing by the team at Brickdam Police Station. The procedure was de rigueur in those days. Driving lessons were given by a friend, who was a meticulous teacher, with ‘L’ signs prominently displayed on the back and front windscreens of the small Morris Minor, as specified by the traffic regulations. I wondered whether these had changed when, not so long ago, I overtook on Thomas Road someone whose behaviour was that of a learner driver. Driving past more slowly than necessary I observed that the khaki-uniformed female police officer who was nervously attending the steering wheel was unaccompanied by a coach.
How times have changed! With my ageing disabilities I have since resorted to the continuing risks of taxis, all of which are ‘controlled’ by one-handed drivers, the other usually too busy manipulating a cellphone.
The amalgam of experiences indicates almost a total, unfamiliarity with (or disregard for), traffic regulations, and an insistence on having the right of way at all costs.
There is little evidence of their having undergone the old police testing, if it exists; rather the display of contempt for the minimal traffic signage there is. (Speed limit signs are conspicuous by their absence.) Notwithstanding, one is impressed (or rather depressed) by the facility with which these untrained public transporters in particular access their driver’s licences. Not that this concern isn’t applicable to private drivers. In discussion with one mature taxi driver, the latter puts it down to the system’s willingness to accommodate extended families and friends – too often at a black market price.
Another taxi driver who held similar views went on to place blame on poor traffic management for the avoidable number of accidents, because of, he posited, the perceived collaboration with some of the law-breakers.
The other day I entered a taxi with the fresh smell of newness, and quickly became aware of a television set playing – for me a distraction for the driver from attention to the traffic. He took my hint and switched off. Then he began in very articulate style to describe differing features in various makes of vehicles. It turned out he was a graduate apprentice from GuySuCo’s Training School at Port Mourant.
He went on to opine the standard of vehicles imported into this country would not be acceptable in the USA, partly for safety reasons. This prompted me to reflect aloud on the presence of air bags in this and other vehicles. He assured me of the various points of installation in his, and that they were common in many other vehicles. When, however, I observed that with all the horrific motor vehicle
accidents reported I could not recall any mention of airbags being operational, my mechanically trained colleague had no answer.
So the question is left to be answered: if in fact airbags are installed in at least a proportion of vehicles on the country’s roads, why aren’t they operational? Should not the controllers of traffic who bemoan the highest road fatality rate around investigate and provide an acceptable answer?
Awaited with bated breath!
Yours faithfully,
E B John
