Wednesday, December 4, 2024 at 1:42 PM

The Editor, Amandala

Dear Editor, 

I would appreciate if you can publish the article below:

Belize’s Roads to Hell!! A National Crisis!

We need to talk. We need our laws to be enforced.

Road traffic accidents (RTAs) are fast becoming Belize’s foremost cause of death, probably overtaking non-communicable diseases.

Existing policies and traffic laws are archaic and lack enforcement. Traffic checkpoints personnel are not serious in their jobs. The limited road patrols, in reality, do nothing but patrol.

I try to avoid our deadly roads as much as I can.

Before and during each of my trips between Belmopan and Belize City, I become apprehensive. Fortunately, these days they are not as frequent. Yet, every day there are idiots, indifferent traffic officers and reckless users of our roads.

Whenever I must be on our roads, I count at least a dozen traffic violations that our highway patrols don’t recognize, or seem to overlook.

Are they being paid for joy rides?

Here are a few of the violations that I witness, and no doubt that are seen by other users of our roads:

The reckless disregard for the flow of traffic by dilapidated buses that should NOT qualify to be on our roads for dozens of reasons, endangering their passengers and other road users. 

Driving without headlights or adequate lights, at dawn or at dusk and/or when visibility is poor.

Reckless driving, without any regard for the demarcations on the road that define areas where it is safe to overtake another vehicle; speeding, especially over hilltops and around curves when there is no clear visibility.

The resistance to wearing seat belts.

Phones in use while persons are driving at high speeds.

Unqualified drivers absolutely ignorant of traffic rules and laws.

The latter is proof that drivers are being granted their permits without any form of testing, with implications of corruption.

I see dilapidated trucks carrying huge loads of rocks and gravel without complying with the legally required safety precautions.

I see inadequate trucks that are dangerously overloaded and with inadequately secured cargo.

I see the transportation of houses and heavy equipment outside of the specific legally prescribed time for the transportation of these heavy loads AND without the required police escorts.

And then there is the unmonitored checking of drunk drivers—even at the checkpoints.

Frankly, I still don’t know what they are checking for.

There is a complete disregard for traffic aids that are also too frequently vandalized. Add to these, travelling at night, and being unable to see clearly because of very poor or no lighting on our roads.

And there is so much more.

In short, while the police say that the country’s murder rate is down, we have potential killers traversing our highways and other roads every day.

This is now a national crisis that MUST be addressed urgently.

This reckless disregard for road safety is causing more deaths than officially defined murder, or cancer or heart disease or any other medically defined killers.

This issue, of our killer drivers, and the related issues have become a national crisis.

Sincerely,
Norris Hall