Robert Pitcher, creative marketing director of the company that produces driver’s manuals for the Caribbean, is concerned that drivers are ignoring road signs.
Over the past few months, Barbados has recorded several road fatalities and other traffic accidents. Pitcher, of Fun & Sun Publishing Inc., said many drivers, especially minibus and public service vehicle (PSV) operators, were paying less attention to traffic signs
He added he did not believe Barbados had enough traffic officers and that was perhaps the view tooof the culprits, who believed they could be lawless on the road.
“Even after 15 to 20 years with the minibuses on the road, we cannot up to this point curtail them from stopping here, there and everywhere,” Pitcher said. “If we can’t stop that, I don’t see how we can stop a number of other things like people driving vehicles that are not insured or licensed.”
Superintendent William Harewood, officer in charge of the Traffic Division of the Royal Barbados Police Force, told the MIDWEEK NATION that since the force only allowed for a traffic branch of a particular size, there were not enough traffic cops.
He said it was therefore important for residents to report those who disregarded the law.
“We have members of the public who are being indifferent and being very callous about law and order on the road. And I would reiterate, even if you look
at PSVs, they commit offences throughout the day and they can be reported. To get that [money], they just disregard proper control,” he said.
“Even some middle age people are not complying with the traffic lights. We have operations on to deal with this. A number of people have been reported and they will come before the courts,” added Harewood.
He explained that in recent times there had been several complaints made against drivers of the state-owned Transport Board buses. He said one of the main reasons was that most of those drivers used to be operators of ZR vans, taxis or minibuses and they would have maintained some of the “same attitudes in their transition”. (MM)
