Lame logic in tackling bike deaths
Published:Friday | August 25, 2017 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
Senior Superintendent of Police Calvin Allen of the Traffic Division is welcoming the proposal to put a tax on motorcycles in an effort to reduce the number of these units that are on the road. This is one proposal that has resulted from the general concern about the high number of deaths and serious injuries attributable to motorcycle activities.
Sometime during the 1980s, a prominent businessman was gunned down at his business place. His killers made their escape on a motorcycle. The then minister of national security stated that he intended to ban the importation of motorcycles. Fortunately, he came to his senses and abandoned that foolish idea.
In April, I took a route taxi in Half-Way Tree to collect my car. By the time we reached Red Hills Road, I had recovered my composure sufficiently to ask the driver to stop the vehicle and allow me to get out. The persons to whom I related my ordeal expressed shock that I was shocked.
We do not have to ride in a minibus to witness several examples, daily, of these drivers' total disregard for anything else on the road.
It's not a motorcycle problem; it's a national problem. What is in evidence is the perceived invincibility that young people feel, coupled with the reckless disregard for others, caused by poor education and inadequate and/or improper socialisation.
GLENN TUCKER