Tek time pon di road

Mi vex, man, til mi waan fi buss! Why you might ask? It is because of the senseless loss of life that has been taking place on our roads. It is nothing short of crazy! How can a country like Jamaica, with a population of under three million people, be having in excess of 300 road deaths per year? No sah! Mi pancreas! Ah wah do we so? Many of the incidents are not actual accidents, they're road crashes because many of them could have been prevented.

The deaths of three primary-school children in St James last week highlighted our dilemma further. I cannot even begin to fathom the hurt and grief their families are experiencing at this psychological moment.

Each year the police, Transport Authority officials and other stakeholders, including members of the private sector, introduce initiatives to try and reduce road fatalities. These include ads, public service announcements and increased police presence on the roads, especially at well-known crash 'hotspots'. These seem to be of no avail. But come fi think bout it, if we never did have dem initiatives deh, probably ah woulda 600 or 700 road fatalities annually!

It is easy to blame the authorities because various governments have been trying to deal with the situation over the years. Ironically, only recently there were significant amendments to the Road Traffic Act introducing, among other things, increased fines for various offences.

TEK STOCK

Truthfully, di big old, tough-back people dem need fi tek stock a themselves and be responsible fi dem actions, which cost the country literally billions of dollars due to the many lives lost and damage to property. Di young idle one dem dung ah Westmoreland who a one wheel wheelie pan de bike dem and ah gwaan lakka seh dem mek outta iron, ah kin poopalik and ah kill off demself, oonuh fi stop it! Life so sweet, how oonuh fi gi weh fi oonu three points just so?

The sad thing about it is that many innocent lives are lost due to the recklessness, carelessness and gross negligence. The hot part is that some a di burrrugoot dem often survive and nuh have nutten fi live fah! Fi dem judgment wi come because God naw sleep!

Passengers, please, do not allow anyone to drive careless with you just because yuh want reach work; and drivers, please do not allow passengers to 'boots yuh up' to drive negligently. If a driver naa tek care of your life, yuh need to exit the vehicle. Betta yuh walk away with your limbs and life intact! Just mek sure if ooonuh waaan act stupid, oonuh nuh kill off de good nice, clean people dem to! Cho!

Until more Chrissmuss breeze blow pan me, do, mi ah beg oonuh tek care. One ah ready, two ah move - but within the speed limit!