Still waiting for breathalyser

THE EDITOR: In case those jigger/chigger brained ministers, politicians (and others who should be involved in its implementation) do not know, there is a device called a breathalyser and laws can be passed to introduce and enforce breathalyser tests in Trinidad and Tobago.
I understand that a call was made over 20 years ago by many concerned persons for the introduction of the Breathalyser Law to combat drunken drivers but nothing was done. Rumour has it that too many ministers, politicians and members of the cocktail circuit would be at risk of prosecution. After all “smile, look stupid and hold a glass of booze in your hand, your picture is being taken to appear in the next “social column” is preferred to the control of alcohol-related road deaths.

I write this letter after reading and looking at the pictures of the death-crash car scene which resulted in the senseless deaths of three young persons on the North Coast Road. If it is true that police officers had warned the driver to go home (apparently because he had been drinking heavily) then a breathalyser test and impounding of his vehicle would have prevented those deaths. I fail to understand why we allow politicians in power to get away with such criminal negligence by refusing to enact laws designed for the protection and safety of all road users. The next innocent victim of this insane road carnage could be one’s mother, father, son or daughter. Yet senseless road manslaughter goes unabated. It only provides morbid headlines for morbid readers.

Apart from the unavailability of breathalyser devices, we have this keystone cop practice of a policeman with a stopwatch and another with a rag waving down alleged speeders. The civilised world uses modern radar speed detection devices to control those lunatics racing to the undertaker. I suppose by 2014 we will be using breathalyser and speed detection devices to control drunken driving and speeders and DNA for crime detection. With leaders/role models like those we have in this country who needs terrorists?

M HOTIN
St James