Indiscipline is rampant

Apr 17, 2014 Editorial

The police have long declared zero tolerance against those who seem bent on breaking the traffic laws, but this has not proven a deterrent. Errant motorists continue to exist in large numbers on the streets and they continue to leave a trail of disaster.
Just this week a minibus driver came speeding down the East Bank Demerara roadway and plunged into the trench alongside the Rotunda, home of Banks DIH Limited. No one died but people would later talk about the two babies who had to be rescued from the trench along with sixteen other passengers.
Certainly, the bus was overloaded but the driver despite passing a number of police stations and police patrols, was able to proceed along his merry way. Then there were the passengers who said that they kept appealing to the driver to slow down but that he only responded with vile language.
None of the passengers demanded to be let off almost immediately perhaps because they felt that they would have had a long wait for the next available transport. And had there not been the crash, none would have reported to the police that they had been appealing to the driver to slow down and that he cussed them out.
There have been a few who actually reported errant minibus drivers to the police and had these people prosecuted but not nearly enough of the travelling public do this to enforce the regulations. Indeed the driver fled the scene of the accident and to this day there has been no report of his arrest.
The police by their actions often encourage the recalcitrant behavior. People report that they become judge and jury on the road. They ‘fine’ the errant driver and send him on his way. The fine does not end up in the public coffers.
A few years ago, the police on West Berbice had a system that drastically reduced the spate of accidents on that stretch of roadway between Rosignol and Abary. When vehicles drove off the Rosignol Ferry they were made to line up behind a police patrol car which then led the way toward the city.
Resources sometimes play a crucial role in curtailing certain operations. The police lost vehicles for one reason or the other and the cost of fuel proved too much for the police division to maintain the patrols. Now certain police details are tackling the lawlessness. Many vehicles, despite the law, are heavily tinted. And they do not have the necessary permission to wear such tints. The police, on the spot, make the drivers remove the tints.
But the police can only do so much; a lot depends on the magistracy. We have heard motorists actually smiling at the penalty because inflation has eroded the intended effect. Gone are the days when $10,000 had some value. Today that is less than a day’s pay for many minibus drivers. But that fine, and less, is the penalty imposed by the courts for infractions of the traffic rules. Small wonder that the drivers smile and return to breaking the law.
This is not the only time that the courts have come in for flack for allowing the police to do the hard work only to see the courts let the people go with either a tap on the wrist or to have the court prolong the trial until witnesses disappear and the case dies.
These are administrative matters and they demand an administrative solution. So far, people affected by the apparent absence of punishment for the law breakers complain but do little else. The existing political system may be the case. However, it is time that people do much more. They are the ones who are the victims, the people who do not have money to pursue legal action, and the ones who have the greatest power to effect change.
It is sickening to see what happens on the street. A pregnant woman collapses on the city streets after a car hits the minibus in which she was travelling. The errant driver merely claims that she did not see the minibus so she did not stop at the major road. In court she is going to walk away with a slap on the wrist if any.