The Barbados Road Safety Association (BRSA) is hoping that 2017 will be the year that Barbados will finally see breathalyser testing introduced.
Speaking at a recent BRSA awards ceremony, President Sharmane Roland-Bowen said that the Association was hoping to see the much needed initiative come on stream this year, but it has not happened. She added then, that with the year fast coming to an end, they remain optimistic that the authorities will institute it sooner rather than later. The road safety advocate’s comments came as she said she is baffled that in spite of the evidence which shows the dangers of driving under the influence, concrete steps are not being taken locally to address the growing problem.
“This is the end of 2016 and this year we were expecting the breathalyser, we want to put safety first on our roads. We were expecting the breathalyser and it has not come true and I am hoping that someday, not someday, but very, very soon we can get that legislation and that we get a representative that is assigned to road safety,” she said.
Roland-Bowen said that road safety needs to be treated with more prominence and she is urging either the Ministry of Transport and Works or preferably the Attorney General’s Office, to designate an employee whose job will be to see after the safety on our roads and ensure that legislation related to road safety is up to date.
She added, “…Then they would see the importance of putting safety first and getting that breathalyser because it has been researched, we know it is a fact that drinking and driving kills; we know distracted driving kills and we cannot understand why this legislation is taking so long. A country should never put money before the lives and safety of its people and if we continue to do that we are going to be losing some of our most valuable assets – our people.”
Roland-Bowen is adamant that Government must see the importance of such legislative amendments and move with alacrity to push the initiative through to fruition.
“The Barbados Road Safety Association is non-political and we hope that some person, some party whenever it maybe, whoever it may be, would grant it… We need strong persons to take care and take responsibility and look out for all categories of road users and the breathalyser would be a step in that direction,” she said.
She made the point as she maintained it is equally important that legislation looking also at distracted driving, particularly the use of cellphones is introduced as a matter of urgency.
“These are two main issues we are going to fighting for next year,” she affirmed. (JRT)
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