Khan: Breathalyser coming soon

TRAFFIC police and licensing officers will, before year’s end, have the latest technological equipment including the much talked about breathalyser, digital cameras and radar to clamp down on lawless motorists responsible for an increase in road accidents and fatalities.

This was disclosed yesterday by Works and Transport Minister Franklyn Khan, who was the feature speaker at the launch of AutoEx 2003 motor-show, held in the lounge of the Queen’s Park Oval. Also present at the launch were Premier Events Caribbean Chairman Brian Stollmeyer, Automobile Association of Trinidad and Tobago President Donald McKenzie, Marketing Manager at NP, Dwight Lewis and Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Deochand Gosine. Minister Khan explained that with 400,000 registered vehicles on the nation’s roads and approximately 450,000 persons holding driver’s permits, the latest and most advanced equipment would be brought in to help in the detection of motorists who flout the law and cause accidents.

Very soon, the Minister said, digital video cameras similar to the ones used by the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA) would be installed at road intersections to detect motorists breaking the traffic lights. The breathalyser would be employed to detect the excessive alcohol content level of drivers and the radar gun would be used to calculate the speed of cars. “If we are to have a quality nation by 2020, we must do away with policemen having to hide behind trees at the side of the road to monitor speeding cars,” Khan said.

He also announced that the Ministry would embark on a Road Safety Programme tomorrow, aimed at educating the public and making them more aware of the importance of observing road safety. For the year so far, there have been 43 road fatalities the latest being Dennis Babwah who was killed in an accident on Monday night along the Uriah Butler Highway near Charlieville. He added that the Licensing Department would be fully computerised soon which would allow for the quicker accessing and processing of information as well as streamlining the existing filing of data. Police and licensing officers out on patrol would very soon be able to access the names and addresses of vehicle owners at the touch of a button. Information on vehicles including make, year of manufacture, chassis number and engine numbers can also be quickly accessed by the police.

Khan later made a plea for the driving public to change their attitude towards the use of the road and the role of the police and licensing officers. “We must first change our attitude and outlook on life before we can really be considered a developed nation,” Khan said. Auto Exposition 2003 will be held at the Centre of Excellence, Macoya between May 1 and 4, and will focus on the entire automobile industry products and services being under one roof. Key objectives of this event will be to create a forum for business transactions to occur through networking and interaction between key players in the industry.