Barrier to road safety

In all of the talk surrounding the tragic accident involving Justice Wendell Kangaloo that claimed the lives of four young people, no one is accepting the responsibility that we as a people all bear and I think we need to bring the discussion back to there if we hope to salvage anything from this.

The stark reality is that accident could not have occurred as it did were we not so lazy and irresponsible with our governance and our democracy. The thing pivots on the fact that not only do we get the government we deserve, we get the governance we tolerate. It is a sad indictment on all of us that we continue to tolerate this sad state of affairs that only asks so many questions and answers none of them convincingly.

What could be at the heart of this irresponsible abdication of the nation’s and its people’s interest? Many have said the required intervention can be manufactured here locally in the form of the globally employed New Jersey concrete dividers utilising local raw materials and local labour to build as well as install. So in these times of out-of-work contractors, can someone tell me why we are not going this route?

Yes, we need a massive re-education as to rights and responsibilities of citizens and road use, but more importantly we need protective enforcement. Speeding happens because speeding is allowed, and while the law of the land can be easily frustrated, in too many instances the cost of the lesson that the laws of physics cannot is being paid for in blood; zero to 60 is one thing, but 60 to zero is something else entirely.

The time for us burying our heads in the sand is long past as the simple act of driving from one place to another requires you to risk losing your life over the carelessness of others and the irresponsible mismanagement of others still. The Ministers of Works, Transport and National Security all have questions to answer here, and the Commissioner of Police and the head of the Traffic Department as well.

Going forward from here must require change that begins with the deployment of contractors to divide the highways immediately, and the creation of a very committed high- ways division in our Police Service responsible for and committed to enforcing the law.

The responses from both Jack Warner and Devant Maharaj leave a lot to be desired from a leadership position, and it is time we start asking more from the people we elect to office. The barriers being put forth over the New Jersey dividers do not stand up to scrutiny much less collisions and the results can be seen littering the highways in pieces.

As in everything else of this nature, the simple things are usually the best to work and the people need to insist that they are at least tried before we go the exorbitant and expensive route. Protecting and serving the people is every public official’s job and if they find themselves in a position outside of their abilities we the people can have only ourselves to blame if that situation continues.

Phillip Edward Alexander
Via e-mail