ROAD SAFETY AGAIN

In Las Lomas, a five-year-old boy was killed at Chin Chin junction when he ran across the road on seeing a relative. In Pointe-a-Pierre, a man in his 50s died after being hit by a car in the vicinity of the Tropical Plaza. In Cross Crossing, San Fernando, a 19-year-old woman was hit by a car while attempting to cross the road near Skinner Park. She is in critical condition in hospital. And, in Cocorite, an unidentified man is now in a coma after being hit by a car near the flyover.

It is not yet known in any of these cases if the pedestrians were at fault, or the drivers, or both. It should be noted, however, that each one of these accidents occurred in areas where the traffic flow made crossing dangerous. In Cororite for example, the accident occurred near to the flyover — a flyover put up specifically because that particular spot, with two lanes of traffic on each side of a curving roadway, has long seen many pedestrians hit by vehicles. It seems, however, that the victim did not want to spend the extra five minutes it would have taken to walk to the flyover and cross it.

The Chin Chin junction is as dangerous as all junctions, by definition, are. Most vehicle-to-vehicle collisions do not occur on highways or long stretches of road. It just seems so, because these are where most fatal accidents occur. But the majority of collisions occur at intersections, for the obvious reason that there are vehicles flowing in three or four directions. When there are no traffic lights — or, indeed, even when there are — cars hit one another because of drivers trying to get into other lanes, with someone either miscalculating, not seeing, or just driving too fast. So crossing at any junction is bad practice.

The accident at Point-a-Pierre did not happen at an intersection, but this is also an area where traffic merges — the southern flow splits into two lanes, in addition to which there are vehicles coming out of the plaza located on the western side of the roadway and Petrotrin on the eastern side. To attempt to cross the three lanes at any point other than the entrance to the plaza is therefore quite risky, and the victim in this case was doing so at 7:30 in the evening clad in dark clothes.

The Cross Crossing accident happened in the morning, but at an area where five lanes of traffic are spread across three thoroughfares heading north, east and west. There are traffic lights, but not for pedestrians. Anyone attempting to cross the road at any point in this area therefore has to exercise extreme care. The safest — or, more precisely, least dangerous — point requires walking down to the Cross Crossing Plaza entrance and crossing the three roadways one at a time.

So, while it is true that drivers have to be more alert and should be trained in defensive driving practices, pedestrians must also exercise more care. Those who take just a few extra minutes to cross the road safely could live to enjoy many more years on Earth.