With the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Bill 2014 currently under debate in Parliament Arrive Alive president Sharon Inglefield is urging authorities to have the political will to ensure this piece of legislation is passed swiftly.
Her comments came in wake of several road accidents which occurred within recent days including that of 68-year-old Una Belgrave and 26-year-old Rennie Sookdeo over the weekend.
Their deaths took place on the eve of the World Day of Remembrance for road traffic victims at the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain, on Sunday.
The road death figures stood at 128 to date compared to 144 last year.
Scores of people, young and old, showed up for the event, some wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the images of those who died in road accidents over the years.
Saying that the gap in legislation must be closed Inglefield said that would enable technology to support the police.
Inglefield said especially important was a prescribe system of awarding penalty points against a person which could result in the revocation of a driver’s licence.
She added: “Because of the gaps that continue to exist the reckless drivers continue to push the boundaries and break the law.
‘We have been allowed to be reckless for a very long time and we need to become like the developed and first world countries and have the proper laws in place and enforce those laws with zero tolerance to save lives and protect us from ourselves.
“We need the political will to make this happen fast. This bill is much more important than any other bill because you are talking about people’s lives.”
She also called on corporate T&T to do its part by having designated “sober zones” especially as the Christmas and Carnival seasons got into full gear.
“We would like to see this in their organisational plans so that the patrons coming and going... arrive alive so that they could get back to their families safe and sound,” Inglefield said.
While saying the safe zones have been implemented for several years, she urged for Arrive Alive to be invited to all so as to ensure efficiency.
She said: “This is for the patrons to be breathalysed prior to driving home. Arrive Alive cannot just show up to a party. We have to be invited by the organisers to be there to include a sober zone.
“Apart from the breathalyser it includes handing out leaflets and encouraging patrons to call a taxi or a friend or just take some time out if they fail the breathalyser. “These sober zones have been happening since 2007 but they have not been included in all the events particularly at Christmas and Carnival time,” Inglefield added.
But she said over the last couple of years there has been an improvement in people wanting to use designated drivers. ‘While we are making baby steps with regards improvement the recklessness have continued to exist,” Inglefield added.
Expressing her condolences to families who lost loved ones she also called for a police presence on the nation’s road, particularly on Fridays and into the weekends from 9 pm to 6 am, when most of the road fatalities are recorded.
REDUCTION IN ROAD DEATHS
Co-ordinator of the Police Service Strategic Road Safety Project, Brent Batson, assured that the Police Service would be ramping up its efforts.
He had also urged motorists and pedestrians to exercise care, caution, courtesy and common sense when using the roads.
“I am again trying to emphasise to people that please, please adhere to the road safety rules and just obey the law and take your time. There’s no rush, the most important thing is that you reach where you are going,” Batson had said.
He said in analysing the statistics there has been a 11 per cent decrease in road traffic deaths for the year thus far but for a small country it was too high.
A stakeholder meeting is expected to take place today following which a number of initiatives are expected to be discussed, including the status of the Motor Vehicle Authority (MVA), traffic congestion, parking enforcement and plans to make high-risk drivers more accountable.
STATISTICS
Road traffic accidents (RTA’s) statistics as at September 8, 2015:
2014 2015
Fatal RTA’s 102 90
Deaths 115 104