Road Safety and Road Reality
Let me begin by explaining that this is intended to make you think.
Perhaps it’s another example of the good suffering for the bad? There are terrible accidents out there, most attributed to speeding, where drivers and pedestrians alike are dying, and infrastructure – street lights, signs, etc – are being mowed down. But like the rapper DMX said, guns don’t kill people – people kill people. So unless those cars are driving themselves, the problem lies with the human side of things, and the social mechanism that places un-trained, un-skilled and un-ready drivers on the road, and pedestrians who feel they can, should and will walk on the road rather than on the adjacent sidewalk.
Cars nowadays are built better than ever, and can, under normal conditions, perform better at higher speeds, with stability control, anti-lock brakes, power steering etc. Yet we have an inane speed limit that puts us at a 50km/hr restriction, where even police cars and other government vehicles etc are routinely cruising well above this. And when the law-abiding old lady actually follows this limit, she creates a line of traffic behind her that stretches 10 cars deep, with the taxi man at the back overtaking the lot, right into oncoming traffic, or diving into the 3rd car from the front, or into the crowd of schoolkids walking home.
Without building more and wider roads, or slowing the influx of vehicles coming in to Jamaica, traffic will get worse, especially if we assume that everyone exhibits rational behaviour and travels at the speed limit, with not a single vehicle exceeding this. Low speed may not be equated with safety, certainly not when you look beyond individual scale (see my old lady example above). The over-loaded truck carrying aggregate from St Thomas is certainly not speeding. But it’s causing serious damage to the road that it’s traveling on, that has a domino effect of the road surface condition that translates itself to all road users. Or that broken down gas truck on Mt Rosser.
Our own vehicle testing and drivers’ licensing programmes are flawed and certainly out-dated with the times, both in terms of the evolution of technology since those rules were developed, and the realities of society, where everything can be circumvented. And traffic police need to develop common-sense approaches to dealing with these realities.
Different vehicles are built differently. Some can handle speeds better than others. When drivers don’t know this, or choose to ignore this, the vehicles they’re in become ticking time bombs. In public passenger vehicles, when buses and taxis are both routinely over-loaded and speeding, it’s a metter of when, not if, an accident will occur.
So where are the passengers in making noise about this? Why aren’t they stopping the drivers from doing this, or reporting this to the police? Do the police care, or would they actually do anything about it? Or are the passengers more happy for a cheap fare than their own safety?
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6 Responses to “Road Safety and Road Reality”
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jasmine cams Intimately, the post is in reality the freshest topic on this registry related issue. I concur with your conclusions and will eagerly look forward to your forthcoming updates. Saying thanks will not just be enough, for the wonderful clarity in your writing.
Regarding Road Safety – I believe that the Jamaica Road Safety Unit needs to educate users of the road on how to properly use the road. Yes you can have someone following the prescribed speed limit, but when there are two lanes such as the dual carriageway is it proper that someone is holding up the right lane because he is cruising at the prescribed speed or is it the lane for overtaking and going back in the left lane. This creates road rage that sometimes tend to lead to improper overtaking and traffic accidents. There is also the trucks that utilize both lanes going at the same rate of speed and no one can get pass them.
I think it boils down to the lack of education. Jamaican drivers don’t drive with their heads. They only drive with their hands and claim “skill” whenever they do some really retarded things. Here in the US, driver education is even instructed in the classroom! Prospective drivers are taught the technique of judging whether they are too close to the vehicle in front of them or not, and also how to judge if its safe to pull out in front of the vehicle or not. Drivers of commercial vehicles go through more stringent measures.Why can’t the same thing be done in Jamaica?
As with all things in this country that make life miserable slackness on the road is the main reason for accidents.It all starts with the inspectors who take money to pass defective drivers and vehicles.There are may drivers who need eyeglasses and there should be no tints in the front of cars because clearly vision is impaired.Police have given up, if they ever tried, to enforce decent driving standards and many of them are as bad as the drivers they are policing.
The use of drugs,alcohol and lack of care and attention make driving on the roads a nighmare,paricularly by night.
Passengers complain!!! No way.Report drivers to the police, you must live in another world.
In most countries they build in forms of traffic calming when they can.Jamaica only builds runways.The lunatic minority that drive on them wouldnt have it any other way.
One of the most effective things we can do to improve road safety is insist on having properly marked white lines to separate and guide motorists into respective lanes.
Until Jamaica improves its road system there will be more dangerous accidents. There are too many corners and narrow roads. The corners need to be widened or eliminated. Driver education should start in the schools. Jamaican youngsters need to be taught the value of being courteous on the roads. Speed kills and that should be reinfourced. I visit Jamaica every now and then and I am appauled at how drivers overtake around corners. Wider roads can allow a better chance of avoiding an accident.