Pace too slow on dangerous driving

Leslie was a passenger in a car when it hit another car while driving along the Claude Noel Highway, Tobago, in the vicinity of the Dwight Yorke Stadium. The driver of the car – Jairon Phillips – was sentenced last week after being found guilty of dangerous driving. The court heard how the driver had been attempting to overtake when the accident happened. The case is a sobering reminder of the consequences of even the smallest of violations. A single attempt to outpace traffic wrecked havoc. Phillips may have been driving one car, but on that fateful day he collided with the lives of all the passengers of the other vehicle. And one passenger of his own vehicle paid the ultimate price.

Leslie succumbed to massive head and chest injuries. Additionally, Heather Gray, a senior librarian of the Scarborough Public Library, had to be airlifted to the Port of Spain General Hospital. She sustained head injuries and a laceration to the face.

Both Jairon Phillips and Sharon Phillips received injuries. Peter George received a cut on the forehead and injuries to his ankle and right leg.

Seven years later, in passing sentence, High Court Judge David Harris noted what Leslie’s family have painfully discovered in the years since their loved one’s death.

“No amount of money, compensation or even months or years even imposed on him (the driver), can reconcile the fact that Oseye Jabari is no longer with us,” the judge was quoted as saying in a Newsday report.

He imposed 18 months hard labour.

“This sentence is not intended to restore human life. I do not believe that a disqualification from him holding a drivers permit commencing seven years after the incident would be particularly useful.” It is unfortunate that the justice system is such that even traffic cases are bogged with tiresome delay. The judge correctly pointed out that scrapping Phillip’s permit at this stage would be an almost academic exercise because so much time has passed.

But we cannot accept this as the status quo. The fact that such a serious case could have been subject to so long a delay is itself an affront to the motoring public. It suggests that even drivers involved in fatal accidents will be allowed to remain on the road in circumstances where a judge may well find merit in a call for that person to be disqualified from holding a permit.

In other words, the old adage better safe than sorry does not seem to apply in our system. Bad drivers are left on the road for years.

Some will also question whether 18 months hard labour is an appropriately severe sentence given the driver’s duty of care to not only his passengers but also commuters.

While the judge may have factored in precedent and the length of time that has elapsed, an argument can be made suggesting that an even sterner approach is required if drivers are to be effectively deterred from taking cavalier risks. Such an approach, though, would be predicated on a fast-driving system of justice.

Today, although speed guns have been effective in helping to reduce speeding, other infractions still occur on the nation’s roadways every day. There is a poor driving culture.

This relates not only to the rules of driving, but to standards of consideration and decency. Trinidad and Tobago drivers truly embody what is meant by the phrase “dog eat dog world”.

None of this is aided by the fact that our Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic legislation remains woefully behind schedule. That legislation, which lapsed in the Tenth Parliament, has been promised a second life in the Eleventh by current Minister of Works and Transport Fitzgerald Hinds. The nation awaits. Meanwhile, it will take more than just law to steer us onto safer roads. It takes care and consideration for those around us. And a recognition that their lives, as well as our own, may be at stake