Top Cop: Be careful on roads

Yesterday, Assistant Commissioner of Police of the Traffic Division Nazimool Hosein appealed to motorists to exercise responsibility on the nation’s roads.

ACP Hosein said yesterday that motorists ought to exercise extra caution in driving along the nation’s road especially during the Christmas and upcoming Carnival seasons, and not let the festivities turn sour with a loss of lives and limbs.

"Drunkenness and revelry rule the day," the senior cop told Newsday. "But we have to let good sense prevail."

On Saturday morning five men were killed in a head-on collision on the Mosquito Creek, South Oropouche. The five fatalities were brothers Rodney Seeramsingh, 28, and Adam Kim Noel, 23; their friend Sterling Cox, 18, all of Country Trace, Point Fortin; and cousins Vaughn Williams, 25, of Friendship Village, near San Fernando, and Yohance Patrick, 28, of Barataria. Only last Friday, traffic division together with several NGO’s launched a road safety campaign under the theme "Road Safety is my Business Too." The campaign involves police conducting road traffic exercises with the aim of reducing vehicular accidents. Police intend to also deliver lectures to motorists nationwide. The traffic division viewed the campaign as a necessity when statistics revealed that at least 20,000 motorists were issued speeding tickets over the last year.

ACP Hosein yesterday advised motorists to exercise responsibility when consuming alcohol. "Get a designated driver or sleep it off before you get behind the wheel if your faculties are becoming impaired," the senior traffic cop advised.

He said everyone has a responsibility to keep "their neighbour: in check, whether it was the taxi-driver, the bartender or the passenger in a taxi.

"If you are feeling uncomfortable in a taxi because the driver is speeding it is your duty to tell him so," Hosein said. "Your life is in his hands."

He also appealed to parents of teenaged motorists to exercise discretion when and where their children are driving their vehicles.

"It must not take a mistake like the one on the Mosquito Creek to come to our senses," said Hosein.