Deja vu on the road

WITH the predictability of a ritual, the seasonal mayhem on our roads has begun. And the sense of deja vu we feel in commenting editorially on it is mixed with a mood of futility and despair and the recognition that the rise in stupidity and recklessness among drivers at this time of the year is a phenomenon as inevitable as the yuletide festivity itself.  The alarming fact is that while the entire society accepts the truth that indiscipline on our highways is the essential cause of our high death and accident rate, aggravated at Christmas time by an over indulgence in alcohol, there seems to be no conscious effort on the offenders’ part to be more careful, cautious and caring while behind the wheel of a vehicle.

As a counter to this kind of perversity, we have made it a virtual policy to hold up to the country’s motoring public the horrible and tragic results of the accidents caused by their recklessness. Hopefully, our display of graphic pictures of the dead and injured and the mangled wreckage of their vehicles would serve to shock the legion of irresponsible drivers into amending their ways. The pictures send a gruesome message to drivers that we can never really express in words. But for the grace of God, every accident victim we feature on our pages could be a picture of any of those motorists whose lust for speed and obsession with getting ahead of everybody else seem pathologically uncontrollable. For this reason we make no apology for publishing the battered and blood-spattered face of accident victim Prem Boodoo on our fron page yesterday. Boodoo’s injuries were particularly unfortunate because he was an innocent victim of the accident which occurred on the Southern Main Road, La Romaine, on Sunday afternoon. Boodoo’s unlucky fate must also bring home to the country’s careless road hogs the fact that they not only place their own lives in danger but also those of other users of the road.

Who is to blame for the head-on crash in which he was hurt we do not really know. The fact is, however, that some driver had to be at fault when vehicles collide at such speeds on our highways. According to police reports, Prem’s cousin, Eddie Boodoo, was driving his car when he turned left from Pond Street into the Southern Main Road and collided with a station wagon driven by Narood Pooran. The three injured men have been detained at the San Fernando General Hospital.  On Sunday, we published the twisted wreckage of the Sierra sports car in which 22-year-old Michael Hospedales of Santa Flora lost his life at Freeport in the early hours of Saturday morning. One relative claimed that he was not the type of driver to speed and that he may have fallen asleep at the wheel. Whether that is true or not, the flying career of his Sierra after he lost control of it and the mangled mass it became on landing testifies to the excessive speed at which he was travelling. The car struck the iron railing on the overpass, somersaulted and landed about 15 feet on the underpass.

From tyre impressions on the road, Police investigators conclude that Hospedales must have slammed his brakes in attempting to slow down about 100 yards before the flyover. Pinned behind the wheel, Hospedales was killed on the spot. The festive season is not yet in full swing, but it appears that the expected spate of accidents has begun. Will our warning to drivers, unpleasant as it is, serve any purpose? It is distressing to think that carelessness on our roads, an attitude that can be curbed, can produce so much mayhem and agony in our society. We now ask the question, how many more must die before we see a change?