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NOT one, two or three but twelve persons including a two-month old baby and a student have perished in a most horrific accident on the Corentyne road. How crazier can we become on the roadways? Will our drivers ever learn? Especially those who are driving vehicles for public transport because they are entrusted with the responsibility of the safety of their passengers.
In recent years there have many horrific accidents but they still continue. It was only about three years a similar tragedy occurred in Linden where 10 persons died.
In this most recent Berbice tragedy it is clear from all accounts that speeding was a major factor as in almost all similar accidents and police have confirmed that speeding is a major cause of road accidents in our country. So we have yet another incident of a senseless loss of a dozen lives.
The other issue surrounding this horrific accident is that the bus was heavily overloaded, which bus operators see as an easy way of making extra dollars. But overloading has several serious dangerous implications. First of all the braking distances of such vehicles increases because anyone with a basic knowledge of physics would know that momentum is the product of mass and velocity and therefore the greater the mass at a given velocity the greater is the momentum. Secondly, the stability of such vehicles is less because its point of equilibrium is changed because of the greater number of passengers, hence controlling them is much more difficult, particularly at higher speeds. Thirdly, cramming leaves little space between bodies, so you have less volume and in an accident the pressure on bodies increases, there the probability of serious injuries increases significantly. This is apart from the discomfort of passengers and a breach of the traffic laws and insurance regulations.
In the final analysis the safety of passengers are at grave risk and tragedies like these will continue to happen unless commonsense and respect for people’s lives prevail.
But what is the solution to such human tragedies? Some may argue that you need more police patrols, draconian penalties etc. and these are not without their merits. However, it could be equally argued that unless and until we do not change the psyche of drivers to one where they are responsible, caring, courteous, respect traffic laws and rules and love for life then you could have all the best laws, patrols etc, these tragedies will continue.
The bigger problem with our roadways is attitude, particularly with respect to drivers who generally display gross recklessness and a cavalier style. This problem has multiplied manyfold with the advent of the minibuses and their subsequent “road culture.”
But the attitude on the roadways is just a subset of a broader problem of poor attitudes in our society. We simply do not care how we dress, how we speak to others, how loud we play music etc.
So clearly there is a need for an overhaul of attitudes and behaviours in our country. But who would bell the cat? Surely it cannot be the government alone, as many are wont to feel. It has to be a collective and concerted effort by all–parents, teachers, religious and other organisations.
Surely we cannot afford such human tragedies to continue unabated, especially when they are clearly preventable.
In recent years there have many horrific accidents but they still continue. It was only about three years a similar tragedy occurred in Linden where 10 persons died.
In this most recent Berbice tragedy it is clear from all accounts that speeding was a major factor as in almost all similar accidents and police have confirmed that speeding is a major cause of road accidents in our country. So we have yet another incident of a senseless loss of a dozen lives.
The other issue surrounding this horrific accident is that the bus was heavily overloaded, which bus operators see as an easy way of making extra dollars. But overloading has several serious dangerous implications. First of all the braking distances of such vehicles increases because anyone with a basic knowledge of physics would know that momentum is the product of mass and velocity and therefore the greater the mass at a given velocity the greater is the momentum. Secondly, the stability of such vehicles is less because its point of equilibrium is changed because of the greater number of passengers, hence controlling them is much more difficult, particularly at higher speeds. Thirdly, cramming leaves little space between bodies, so you have less volume and in an accident the pressure on bodies increases, there the probability of serious injuries increases significantly. This is apart from the discomfort of passengers and a breach of the traffic laws and insurance regulations.
In the final analysis the safety of passengers are at grave risk and tragedies like these will continue to happen unless commonsense and respect for people’s lives prevail.
But what is the solution to such human tragedies? Some may argue that you need more police patrols, draconian penalties etc. and these are not without their merits. However, it could be equally argued that unless and until we do not change the psyche of drivers to one where they are responsible, caring, courteous, respect traffic laws and rules and love for life then you could have all the best laws, patrols etc, these tragedies will continue.
The bigger problem with our roadways is attitude, particularly with respect to drivers who generally display gross recklessness and a cavalier style. This problem has multiplied manyfold with the advent of the minibuses and their subsequent “road culture.”
But the attitude on the roadways is just a subset of a broader problem of poor attitudes in our society. We simply do not care how we dress, how we speak to others, how loud we play music etc.
So clearly there is a need for an overhaul of attitudes and behaviours in our country. But who would bell the cat? Surely it cannot be the government alone, as many are wont to feel. It has to be a collective and concerted effort by all–parents, teachers, religious and other organisations.
Surely we cannot afford such human tragedies to continue unabated, especially when they are clearly preventable.
