St. Lucia’s roadways are getting increasingly dangerous, highlighted by poor driving habits and a less than cautious approach to motor vehicle manipulation and excessive speed.
Adding to that already atomic cocktail for disaster is the blinding headlights that effectively curtail one’s vision at night.
What is particularly concerning to motorist and should arrest the attention of the police and the authorities responsible, is the fact that these lights are aftermarket units installed by the vehicle owners themselves.
Vehicle manufacturers generally outfit new units with headlights rated to carry standard 65watt bulbs which has been proven to be adequate, particularly given the upgrades in streetlighting across the island.
What is clearly evident, is that vehicle owners are installing those aftermarket LED high-power bulbs with ratings of 100 watts and over. It is clear that ime travels can prove the to be that much more difficult when one is faced with this added impediment.
While this by itself will not eliminate traffic accidents on the islands’ roads, it may prove to cause a serious dent in the numbers, and the police must attack this issue head on if that is to be realized.
Before that, however, laws need to be placed on the books to assist the hardworking men and women of the Royal St. Lucia Police Force {RSLPF} in fighting the battles on the streets.
There are other “small” areas of concern that must also grab the attention of the authorities. One such is the excessively dark window tint that severely hamper the vision of motorist in the day time, much less at night.
There is the issue of stopping and parking indiscriminately, hampering traffic movement and creating dangerous scenes day and night, but that we have dealt with previously.
There is also the issue of trucks and heavy vehicle movement, vehicles that are not close to being roadworthy.
Then, there is the issue of police presence at during peak traffic hours but that is again another issue for a later time.
Going back to the issue of bright headlights; it has to be mentioned that there is also the discourteous nature of some drivers at night driving continuously with their headlights on the bright mode and who do not dim them even when prompted to do so. These motorists are obviously not cognizant of the fact that blinded drivers can veer in their direction as well.
Prime Minister Philip Pierre has lamented the dangers on the island roads, himself a firsthand witness to the carnage that exist. He must now take some bold decisions, popular or not, to ensure the safety most local motorist demand.
The RSLPF as well need to make these “small” issues a priority.
The black author Renford Reese says “if you take care of the little things, the big things take care of themselves,” but it was V. S. Naipaul who insisted that “small things start us in new ways of thinking.”
If these are both true we need to start on the small things urgently because God knows we desperately need a new way of thinking.