Don’t take risks
Road safety advocates are urging motorists approaching junctions to proceed with caution and put all safety measures in gear to reduce the likelihood of serious collisions.
President of the Barbados Driving School Association, and public relations officer of the Road Safety Association, Erskine Cumberbatch, stressed the importance of defensive driving when navigating junctions, estimating the time, distance and speed of other vehicles before proceeding.
“Always be very careful and make sure you check. If possible and you can wait until the person in the centre lane turns right that you can see clearly, do that. It doesn’t make sense taking chances. It has a lot to do with the time, the distance and the speed of the other vehicle. How long that vehicle is going to get from there to here, how long or how quick you’ll be able to get up before it and the distance that vehicle is – that’s what we teach in driving school,” he told the Saturday Sun.
Cumberbatch explained that a frequent mistake by drivers was the miscalculation of the speed of the other vehicle when attempting to make a move, which often ended in an accident.
He advised people to look two or three times before making an attempt and if unsure, not to proceed.
“The moment you have a doubt about anything, don’t do it. If you’re in doubt or unsure about how to move next, don’t take the chance,” he urged.
Driving instructor Junior Jordan recommended that motorists coming to junctions reduce their speed, conduct a 360 scan of the area, looking to the right, ahead, left and then behind before moving off. He said by slowing down, this prevented the likelihood of a collision and alerted other vehicles to slow down.
Jordan again called for the implementation of the demerit points system, to monitor and regulate driver behaviour by accumulating points for traffic offences, which when at a certain point, leads to automatic suspension of a driver’s licence. He also wants cameras to be placed at junctions to capture illegal road actions.
‘If you have cameras in those areas, they can be used for prosecution if the legislation is there, and if not, it needs to be allowed so footage can be used for prosecution in court. If somebody knows that there’s a camera that will get them reported or taken to court and be fined, they would have to be stupid to keep doing it,” he said.
President of the Barbados Road Safety Association Roland Lowe urged drivers to consider the potential risks and dangers they posed to themselves and others when they did not abide by the rules and regulations of the road.
Roundabout proposed
He spoke of the junction near Windsor Road and Brighton in St George, where another accident occurred yesterday, noting it was proposed to have a roundabout.
“Persons always speak about how dangerous that area is and I would advise that they take the relevant caution. If you know that the junction is difficult to manoeuvre, then you should exercise a greater level of caution. Check once, check twice before you actually make that manoeuvre, and you move only when it is safe to do so,” he cautioned.
On Thursday, five people were injured in a four-car collision on the ABC Highway around 7:30 a.m. when three of the vehicles were heading towards Kingsland, Christ Church, and the other in the opposite direction. Two of them caught fire during the crash.
The injured were treated at the scene before they were transported by ambulance to hospital.
Late last month, residents of Rices, St Philip, cried out for more signage and speed humps to be installed along the pavilion T-junction there which has been the scene of several accidents.
Also last month, Minister of Finance Ryan Straughn, while delivering the Budgetary Proposals And Financial Statement in the House of Assembly, announced that dashcams and GPS devices for vehicles will be exempt from duty and value added tax for a year, from this month, in a bid to help improve road safety while also simplifying the investigation of traffic accidents.
(AJ)
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