Traffic Department doing its best to curb such practices
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – DESPITE its numerous efforts at educating the public and promoting road safety, the Traffic Department is reporting that there is still a serious problem with “careless driving” or “driving without due care and attention”.
SKNVibes has taken note that a significant portion of persons convicted for traffic violations in St. Kitts – between 30 and 45 percent – are convicted for “driving without due care and attention” at the Basseterre Traffic Court, be it by confession or trial.
Head of the Traffic Department – Inspector Cromwell Henry – informed that on average, between 45 and 50 accidents take place every month. And notwithstanding that most are minor non-injury accidents, he said they are significant enough to engage police resources.
“These accidents usually are the result of negligence on the part of one or more drivers or failure to comply with the rules as outlined in the Highway Code. The police therefore – having investigated the accident – would bring a charge of careless driving against the party responsible. Careless driving – in short – is a departure from the standard of driving which is expected from a reasonable prudent and competent driver. It results when a driver does something that he ought not to have done or fails to do something that he should have done, which usually results in an accident.
“The persons who are charged with careless driving are persons who were involved in traffic accidents and, following investigations, the party who the investigator believes is responsible based on the evidence, is charged with ‘careless driving’ which is ‘driving without due care and attention’.”
Oddly enough, the Traffic Head informed that there have been increases in the number of vehicles and new drivers, coupled with a steady declining number of accidents per year.
In St. Kitts there were 959 accidents in 2012 and 939 in 2011, while in Nevis there were 294 in 2010 and 261 in 2011.
He said the number of “serious accidents” is also on the decline with 31 and 29 recorded for St. Kitts in 2010 and 2011 respectively, and seven and six recorded for Nevis for the same respective years.
Despite these positive trends, there is still a prevalence of bad driving, but Inspector Henry has indicated that the Traffic Department continues to do all in its power to keep that within acceptable limits.
“We are dealing with it from a two prong approach: Education, because we constantly try to educate the public via radio and other media houses, and Enforcement. I would not say that education is ineffective because we are seeing slight declines in the numbers, while at the same time there are increases in the number of vehicles and the number of drivers. But we are also enforcing the traffic laws of the land and we hope that more motorists would obey them…”
As punishment for a “driving without due care and attention” offence, a magistrate can impose a fine of up to $2 000 or a custodial sentence of up to six months upon a convicted party. Should persons continue driving carelessly, they will experience the weight of the law,” Henry said.
