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Driver of PA3129 GUILTY!

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Driving through red lights in Barbados has become a norm and highlights a growing lawlessness.

At approximately 7:15 AM on the January 15, 2024 a Suzuki Swift, the new terror on the road, displaying number plate PA3129 drove through a red light on Pine, East West Boulevard junction.

Driving through red lights in Barbados has become a norm and highlights a growing lawlessness. We are often quick and hypocritical chastising the PSV sector but private citizens have added to the growing indiscipline on our roads.

Again we have to ask, with the available technology, why is the treasury not earning revenue from heavy fines imposed on traffic offenders? We have allowed the so called minibus culture to thrive and it has permeated mainstream behaviour. Unfortunately our ‘leadership’ has demonstrated it is helpless to manage a growing crisis.

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19 responses to “Driver of PA3129 GUILTY!”

  1. Elvis Sandiford Avatar
    Elvis Sandiford

    Traffic lights are there for a reason, to help control traffic, and mostly to prevent fatal accidents. I don’t know about heavy fines because to most people that wouldn’t matter. With that it brings another problem for the tax payer. The amount of people that would have to be taken to court for none payment would out weigh the penalty. However recieving endorsements on their license which in turn reflect the premium paid for insurance should be higher because the offenders would be put in a category of dangerous drivers. A persistent offender should result in a driving ban for 12 months.
    Lawlessness is already bad enough in Barbados, let’s get on top of this one!

  2. FearPlay Avatar
    FearPlay

    Same here. My family and I were on our way home after a family gathering on Sunday night (Errol Barrow Day) when the light turned red as my daughter, who was driving, stopped at this same intersection. We were waiting in front of the temporary location of the fire station when not one, but two cars zoomed past us. One kept straight on Pine Plantation Road while the other turned right on to Pine East West Boulevard. The road was wet.

    I shudder to think of what could have happened had another vehicle or motorcyclist been coming from another direction under the guidance of the lights. What was doubly horrendous about the entire episode was the speed at which these traffic infractions were performed, and on a wet road to boot!

    What ever happened with the traffic cameras that were purchased at great expense to the treasury (read ‘taxpayer’) and are so boldly on display at some intersections? Are they functioning? Were they ever activated? Are they automated in a manner to flag violations and send a ticket? Why the hell are they there if they are serving no purpose?

    Oh, I forgot, the authorities will get around to them after they sort out the ZR problems.

  3. Glendine henry Avatar
    Glendine henry

    Sadly all facets of life here have devolved

  4. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    Well, well …
    Fines and penalties should be imposed and aggressively followed-up on. Trying to figure out who will and will not pay before a law is broken may end up with everyone getting a free pass.

    Mistakes happen.
    I have gone through a red light, but never intentionally.
    Mistakes happen. Thank God if no one is hurt and fine the driver. Hold the man accountable.

    Try to have a learning driver education program.

    If we blow up small issues and leave the big ones untouched we are spinning top in mud.

    Give the man a ticket.

  5. John Avatar
    John

    Once it has addressed running a red light, the GOB is going to have to address magazine capacity.

    This was sent to me just now, don’t know if AI was used to produce it.

    https://imgur.com/a/LZV0Ofr

  6. D. Lewis Avatar
    D. Lewis

    Well-look at the other side. A farmer catches some men on HIS land, stealing his property. He ends up by shooting them. Immediately the ‘Cuh dear’ society, without having all the facts, jump in. He should have called the police (yeah, right), you shouldn’t get killed for stealing yams ( the farmers should stop complaining, too) etc etc.

    Try to start getting firm with law breakers, and all the ‘Cuh dealers’ come out in force-penalties too heavy!

    We shouldn’t execute murderers either. Let the bereaved family pay to help house them.

  7. David Avatar
    David

    @Elvis

    A good suggestion that requires a collaborative approach between private and public sectors. A challenge of we are to go by how we do things in Barbados, a tiny country.

  8. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    ” Staff have complained of respiratory ailments caused by toxins released by the smoking incinerator, which is scheduled to operate seven days a week.”

  9. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    https://nationnews.com/2024/01/26/gaia-given-time-to-fix-emissions/

  10. Redguard Avatar
    Redguard

    The dark tints on numerous vehicles is also another safety issue. The guys are even tinting the front windshield. However your favourite politician gets privacy when meeting with his constituents in his mobile office

  11. John A Avatar
    John A

    The red light breakers, the PSVS, the clowns on the scambler motorcycles on the back wheel every sunday, the guys smoking weed publicly, the ZR drivers drinking guiness and driving etc etc etc. This was the cry 5 years ago and 5 yrs before that and what has been done? Not one dam thing!

    Start by fencing 6 acres of land and opening a state impound centre. Seize the vehicles and release them only AFTER fines are paid. The longer the court take the better. Along with the fine set a $50 a day impound storage fee for private vehicles and a $200 A Day fee for PSVS.

    When this is done, then the insurance companies will charge a surcharge of 25% on premiums for the first offence, a 50% for the second and 75% for the third. On number 4 you sease to insure and license is taken away for 5 years. Instead of that the dogs coming at me with a full no claim bonus and asking for more!

    Then again this will never happen as every party want the vote and here aint no Singapore, no matter how much we talk crap about wanting to be one!

    So folks in 2028 we will be discussing this same crap with a few other offences added.

  12. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    @Hants
    Not being on the ground there, I can only comment on what I read.
    Is this a new school or was it there all the time?
    GAIA has been around for some time, is this an updated / new incinerator?
    Why is this burn different (more toxic) than previously?

    A lot of the news seem to be collected by someone seated with a phone at a desk and not asking relevant questions.

  13. Platinum Avatar
    Platinum

    It’s not only red lights, they fly through major roads without even slowing down when the they can see that nothing is coming on their right, but a car could be overtaking another one on their left side and that is not visible. Another thing is that they don’t seem to understand what an indicator is for. Cameras need to be on traffic lights and those major stops, BUT they need to be viewed by people with integrity.

  14. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    Why is this burn different (more toxic) than previously?
    ++++++
    Is it more noxious or does it impact different communities depending on wind direction? On this occasion it was blowing in the direction of the school.
    An enterprising reporter would have visited the area and obtained feedback from the residents to determine if they have been impacted over the years as it may not have been an isolated event.

    My wife is from the area and three people close to her died in recent years of various illnesses and while correlation is not causation it makes one wonder.

    I read where other residents of areas close to the QEH were also complaining of smoke coming from an incinerator, it’s time the powers that be implement a solution to remove the fumes from these incinerators or relocate them to areas that wouldn’t impact the population.

  15. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ John A on January 26, 2024 at 6:08 PM said:

    (Quote):
    When this is done, then the insurance companies will charge a surcharge of 25% on premiums for the first offence, a 50% for the second and 75% for the third. On number 4 you sease to insure and license is taken away for 5 years. Instead of that the dogs coming at me with a full no claim bonus and asking for more!
    (Unquote).
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    You do make a solid point there!

    But what about the ‘other’ thousands of uninsured (and not-road-worthy) vehicles still travelling daily on the overly congested pot-holed roads?

    It is strongly felt that since the abolition of the annual requirement to register a private vehicle many of them (although attracting their share of road taxes at the pump) are refusing to contribute, unlike you, to the pool of third-party motor insurance in order to spread the risks and hence the average cost of insurance.

    The question is why abolish a system (annual re-registration and sticker to show) without a ‘working’ replacement to identify, catch and penalize by way of heavy fines the cheaters?

    But what can we expect from a government who can’t even get a simple
    ‘Breathalyser’ law put in operation although passed many years ago in a sophisticated country claiming to be ‘punching above its third-world weight’ but where there are over 140,000 vehicles on the roads with thousands parked on the many imported used car lots ready to join the melee of lawlessness?

  16. John A Avatar
    John A

    @ Miller

    I have to agree with you there for sure. The system, or lack there of, that we have now is a joke. The govermment went for the money grab without having a plan B in place, its that simple.

    I was in St Vincent last year and
    they have a very simple system that is easy to see. They have a stuck on sign on the windshield with the year and each year has a different colour. Thr sign is rougly 5 inches by 4 inches in size. So if 2022 is Red then 2023 is bright green. The sign also has the official state seal and ensures that it can not be easily copied. So from 100 feet away the colour is noticeable. Now we dont have to burden the license authority alone with this either. Every year say in January you have the entire month to present your insurance certificate to any post office or police station island wide, where the certificate can be recorded and a windshield sticker handed over for a $20 fee. As of February first however any vehicles without the sticker will be stopped and inpounded. Its simple, cheap and enforceable. Along with the fine you will also pay the inpound storage fee as well.

    Left out the blasted excuses and long talk and just implement something that is easliy inforceable. I remember well the days when the police checked the cars and glued a checked paper to the windshield. We dont have to go back there but lets get something simple in place for Gods sake!

  17. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    Once again our BU commentators are being hypocritical.

    On the one hand they want much more surveillance of public transport, on the other they accuse our beloved Supreme Leader of setting up a dictatorship. The two somehow don’t go together.

    And yet the solution is obvious. It is so simple: our beloved government should finally install software on every mobile phone that permanently records movement, images and sound. Every breach of the national rules could then be detected and penalised in real time.

    If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.

    Tron, year 6 of Glorious Revolution

  18. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    Good to see you back and still spreading the message.

  19. David Avatar
    David

    https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2sNOyQtGOG/

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