Defective vehicles are time bombs

THE EDITOR: I read with much concern the circumstances under which 71-year-old Mr Lakhan was convicted of manslaughter and placed on a bond. Mr Lakhan had been driving a truck with defective brakes and no safeguards whatsoever to prevent his vehicle from crashing into and killing the occupants of other vehicles. Also, I note the concern of the presiding judge who lamented the poor state of the nation’s prisons and inadequate provision at the penal institutions for incarceration of 71-year-old persons. The judicial concern just referred to is valid but equally valid and ticking like a time bomb is the unacceptable number of “Lakhans” driving seriously defective vehicles on the already substandard and dangerous roads of Trinidad and Tobago.

I do a lot of driving and daily I notice the hundreds of defective vehicles on the nation’s roads — death traps waiting to claim innocent victims and some of those vehicles are maxi taxis whose drivers are engaged in suicidal driving and accept monies/fares from passengers they intend to kill and maim sooner or later as a result of the maniacal operation of their motor vehicles. To have an administration that permits these conditions to exist  borders on treason. In addition, the administration turns a blind eye to the hundreds of PH cars illegally plying for hire on our roads.

It is common knowledge that if an accident occurs involving one of these PH vehicles and a paying passenger gets seriously injured then he could spend the rest of his life disabled and not be entitled to collect one black cent from any insurance company. Most of these PH drivers are men of straw. How can anyone who has the nation’s welfare at heart and who has a drop of “Trini” (and that includes Tobago) blood flowing through his veins ignore and overlook such abhorrent conditions? Should these situations not be the cause for judicial comment also?

In civilised countries where class action suits are allowed and non-gouging lawyers are imbued with a fearless spirit that ensures that justice is done, there would be a flood of such action suits against the authorities and contributories who through sheer negligence and incompetence allow victims/citizens of their country to suffer injuries without recompense/compensation resulting from the use of defective vehicles, PH cars, dangerous defective and unlighted roads, potholes, open neglected manholes either on the roadways or sidewalks and going further afield dangerous and harmful nuisances emanating from factories, quarrying operations etc.

In this country the list is unending. Can a country that is helpless to remedy the ills I have just highlighted, be strong enough to tackle the other ills such as rising crime? Our citizens are citizens who panic and run if it starts to rain. Such a nation is likely to push the panic button and permit the emergence of a police/totalitarian State/dictatorship to be introduced here in the near future. History has given us a long list of examples.

M HOTIN
St James