How many Lakhans?

IN TERMS of straight justice, 71-year-old truck driver Mathura Lakhan should have been sent to jail for causing an accident which killed three persons and injured 18 others five years ago. Lakhan was found guilty of driving a defective truck which plunged uncontrollably down the steep incline of St James Street in San Fernando, crashing into two maxi-taxis and a car. Instead of jailing him, however, Justice Paula Mae Weekes, sitting in the San Fernando First Assize Court, placed Lakhan on bonds totalling $90,000, ordered him to keep the peace for three years and banned him from driving for life.

We understand the outrage expressed by victims of Lakhan’s irresponsibility, particularly the relatives of those who lost their lives in this dreadful accident. Justice was not done, said Avion George who was crippled in the St James Street smash- up. George, now 20, uses a walking stick to get about. “I still think he should have been sent to prison,” she added. “I am not in the best of health, but these are things one can cope with. But how can you come to terms with the penalty passed on the driver?” As the trial revealed, Lakhan was driving a truck which had no brakes, no back-up system, no working lights or gauges and with smooth tyres. In effect, the ageing driver knowingly took to the road a virtual weapon of mass destruction, and the feeling of many is that the court should have made an example of him for the carnage he caused on St James Street.

But administering justice is not always a straightforward business. Sometimes the circumstances of the case or the precarious physical condition of the convicted person may require a more lenient or considerate approach. Apparently Justice Weekes went this way because of  three considerations. The first two were Lakhan’s age and the fact that he suffered from heart problems. The third was the state of the country’s prisons which, according to the judge, did not have facilities to manage prisoners with serious health problems. We do not want to be unfairly critical of the judge in extending this leniency to Lakhan, since we appreciate the fact that justice must sometimes be tempered with mercy. But it certainly seems odd to us that Lakhan, who claims to have a faulty heart, should be prepared to put his life — and that of others — in jeopardy by driving such a defective truck which, at any moment on the crowded road, could have induced a heart attack in even a healthy driver.

In other words, Lakhan not only had a defective truck but a defective heart as well! That double risk should have served to compound his culpability. Now we must wonder how many other careless Lakhans are there plying our busy highways in faulty vehicles and placing the lives of innocent road users in danger. This, we believe, is the more vital issue arising from the St James Street tragedy. It is a question that must actively concern our traffic police and Licensing Department whose officers should be regularly engaged in detecting and pulling off the road such offenders. The carnage from reckless driving is already too high to be aggravated by the number of defective vehicles on our roads and highways.