Poor road conditions coupled with poor driving on TT roads

THE EDITOR: On the subjects of road users and accidents, I feel sorry only for the innocent victims, whoever they are and wish to give the following observations as some of the reasons for accidents. On the highways such as they are, we drive on the right side and will not move, as if to say “I have been spending a few months in the states and I have forgotten that here, we drive on the left hand side. You have to excuse me even while you admire the foreign used relic I am driving.” If we encounter anyone else on this lane, we drive right up to their bumper and blink our lights in intimidatory fashion. Taxi drivers resembling predatory animals and drivers of sales-vans also claim this right. Woe be unto the driver if s/he was overtaking another vehicle. S/he either has to refuse to move or find him/herself wedged between two snails just to accommodate the right lane hog.

That kind of thing happens on the so-called highways. It beats me how one can call a road a highway and yet business places use the shoulders for driveways and parking with impunity and the authorities turn a blind eye. “Only in a fifth world country,” I say. Let us shift to the country roads of the two-lane variety. First to begin, they are too narrow in some places and most people got their drivers’ licences without seeing the yard of the driving test area. So, we have antics. For example, Mr Driver from the continent down south and who buys everything from an immigration card to drivers’ licence, zesting down the road. Right here, I must say that too many people park on these roads also and not only the down-southers are guilty of stupid driving practices.

He bounces up (not literally) a parked vehicle on his side of the road. Youth man did not go through the rigours of a regulations drill and exam, so he thinks he has the right of way simply because he reached first. So, having stopped short two inches from the parked vehicle, and not desiring to wait, he comes out in an arc from behind the parked vehicle. If another vehicle is coming from the opposite direction, his arc is so wide that the oncoming vehicle hardly has room to pass, even though his side is clear. The word “bone head” comes immediately to the mind of one observing this. Secondly, on Monday morning around 10.15 am, I was driving along a road that is as narrow as anything called Perseverance Road, at the back of Chaguanas.

I was travelling in a northerly direction and noticed a truck coming toward me at breakneck speed in the middle of this narrow road. Wondering if he would pull on his side or if he will drive into my car, I decided to stop right there and see. I couldn’t take the number of the vehicle even if I wanted to, so frightened was I. What I did notice however, was that he was young-looking and he was barebacked. The truck had no trailer and the hood was spread out like a snake. I could only surmise that he was joyriding and maybe was using his relative’s truck. As he passed me he had to pull on his side of the road, and was bold enough to shout some disrespectful remark by the tone of it.

Because of the height of this truck, I was unable to hear what he said and I was sure he couldn’t see the road properly and hence the reason he was in the middle. But the speed he was driving at and the attitude he had, I said to myself, “my people again, where else but here?” I also asked myself to whom could I go to vent my frustrations. Only if an accident had occurred with the resultant damages to life, limb and vehicle, all mine, then the police may or may not charge him with something and after a while he would have gotten off free as a bird with the blessings of the law to go back and repeat himself.

SUE SANKAR
Chaguanas