Dear Editor,
Recently a letter of mine relating to the number of fatal accidents involving pedestrians was published in both the Stabroek News and Kaieteur News. In that letter I mentioned that there are times when the victim may have contributed significantly to his or her demise, but it does not matter how much evidence there is in support of the driver’s account, including the measurements taken and the point of impact recorded in the accident report book, the police will often place the driver in the lockups; or place him/her on substantial bail to either report back to the station or attend the magistrate’s court after a charge has been instituted.
The defendant would on many occasions hire a lawyer to defend them on a charge that they and other witnesses know that he is not guilty of. After spending hundreds of thousand dollars on bail and lawyer fees, the defendant and relatives and family going through that period of stress all because of the carelessness and/or neglect by the victim.
That is not to say that there are not drivers who are reckless and in so doing may have contributed one hundred per cent to the victim’s demise. Yes, we have seen motor vehicles coming off the road and killing people in their yard, and many times also we have seen people walking aimlessly on our road, drunk and lying by the roadside, and had it not been for the alertness and skill of the driver, they would have been a minor, serious or fatal accident.
On page ten of Stabroek News, 29th September, under the caption ‘Driver cleared of killing pedestrian after court finds deceased was negligent,’ there is a story about a case in point.
Whenever a life has been lost as a consequence of a road accident we will have to be in sympathy with the family and relatives of the deceased person, but there are also times when -we may have to be in sympathy with the relatives and family of both the victim and the driver. There are times when we allow sentiment and emotion to cloud the issue. The Police Traffic Department would time and again make available to the public a breakdown of the number of persons charged with various traffic offences, and it would certainly make interesting reading if that information could include pedestrians causing obstruction commonly known as ‘jay walking’.
Yours faithfully,
Archie W Cordis
