Innocent victims of speed

IF THE irresponsible louts who speed recklessly along our highways kill themselves as the sole victims of the accidents they cause then, we would have no reason for sympathy and very little to say. This is because we are sick and tired of condemning this kind of gross, chronic and dangerous indiscipline. If those who cannot control their lust for speed kill themselves, then so be it. But the fact is that, in so many cases, their carelessness results in the death, injury and mutilation of their own passengers and other innocent motorists and commuters proceeding peacefully about their business.

On Monday, the day following another of our editorials condemning this form of lunacy on our roads, two serious accidents occurred on our highways, both as a result of excessive speeding and both resulting in injury to innocent parties. In the worse of them, Orlando Mc Intosh of Trincity, a member of the Lydian Singers, was killed, having sustained severe head and chest injuries. Mc Intosh was pinned against the steering wheel of his Ford Escort when a pick-up van, travelling on the opposite lane of the Solomon Hochoy Highway, somersaulted over the median and crashed into the driver’s side of his car. A bloody death suddenly came to the singer and guitarist who was on his way, together with another Lydian member Anthony Diaz, to the Naparima Bowl, San Fernando, where they were due to perform at the Agape Show.

Eyewitnesses told us that the driver of the pick-up lost control while attempting to overtake. His van then catapulted over the median and ploughed into Mc Intosh’s car. The total wreckage of the van, as seen on page three of our paper yesterday, testifies to the speed at which it was travelling. Some three hours later, about 1.30 pm, at the intersection of O’Meara Road and the Churchill Roosevelt Highway, a another crash took place in which three persons were critically injured and are now warded at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital. According to witnesses, Vijay Outin and his daughter Kashima were proceeding west in his Prado jeep when they were struck by a Daewoo motor car crossing the intersection. Because of its speed, the car spun around several times and eventually ran into another car driven by Corporal Johnny King who was waiting on the green light to cross the highway.

Outin and his daughter escaped serious injury, but driver of the mangled car, who had to be cut out from behind the steering wheel, and two women passengers were taken to the Arima District Health Facility and later transferred to the PoSGH, all in critical condition. A shaken Cpl King told Newsday that he believed he was safe waiting for the traffic lights to turn green, “but the next thing I heard was bang and this car ran into me. The problem there was sheer speed, everybody wants to go fast.” The cause of these accidents and their tragic results must add to the compelling need for strong and decisive action by the authorities to deal with the insensitive speed mongers on our roads.

We must repeat it, now ad nauseam, that only a relentless and unrelenting enforcement of our traffic laws, particularly on our highways, will curb this kind of recklessness. What we are dealing with is a manifestation of the endemic indiscipline of our society which will respond only to a strong and coercive enforcement of  the traffic laws. And, contrary to what Minister Franklyn Khan believes, only a visible and efficient system of highway patrols can achieve this necessary objective.