TTPS: Road fatalities connected to deeper problem in society

POLICE road safety co-ordinator Brent Batson said there may be a deeper problem in society affecting the reckless attitudes of drivers. He said the police exercise high-level enforcement, but there has been no change in the attitude of drivers.

Batson said accidents such as that involving Jordahn Mc Carthy on Saturday last on the Churchill Roosevelt Highway are avoidable.

He said if drivers practised safer road use, incidents are likely to not end with fatalities.

At the weekly police press briefing at the Police Administration Building in Port of Spain yesterday, Batson said the goal of the Police Service is not to write tickets, but to protect road users.

He spoke about one particular driver who was stopped by the police for speeding.

It was subsequently realised that the driver had been given four tickets previously for speeding, reinforcing his stance on this being a deeper problem in society.

Since the start of the year, 996 drivers have been arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol – some in the middle of the day.

Basdeo Ramdhanie of the Traffic and Highway Patrol branch said there is a serious problem with drunk drivers.

He said the number of fatalities for the year, thus far, have not changed much from the numbers last year for the same period, being 40 and 41 respectively.

Ramdhanie said for 2018 so far, they have issued 15,928 speed tickets island wide. He said the police is doing all that can be done within their powers to reduce instances of road fatalities.

“What is most frightening, is that 32 of the 40 accidents that happened did not take place on highways.” He said the fact that most of the accidents are happening on general public roads is a cause for concern.

Batson said the police is now working on coming up with other strategies to reduce instances of drunk driving, speeding and, by extension, road fatalities.

Asked about the possibility of seizing drivers’ licenses in cases of multiple offences, Batson said the police are not empowered to do so.