NASSAU, The Bahamas -- Officials of the Road Traffic Department and the Road Traffic Division of the Royal Bahamas Police Force have joined forces to “further crack down” on motorists who disregard the country’s traffic laws.
The move comes in response to recent statistics, which show a rate of almost one road crash every hour on the streets of The Bahamas. Police officials say 9,000 traffic crashes were recorded in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas over the course of 2009.
Statistics further show that more than 500 deaths were recorded (accumulative number) over the past 10-years as a result of injuries sustained in road crashes – an average of 50 deaths per year. This figure, Police officials say, is much too high for a small-island nation such as The Bahamas.
Road Traffic officials say that in order to address the problem, the Road Traffic Department has put in place several initiatives, including working very closely with the Royal Bahamas Police Force, in trying to capture details of road crashes in order to “mitigate further crashes while putting into place appropriate measures.”
The Road Traffic Department has also developed a Driver’s Instructors Manual, which will be used by Instructors of Driving Schools in an attempt “to deliver a compatible standard of training for Bahamian drivers.”
The Manual is expected to be launched later this year and is expected to “improve the quality of driving within the country.”
Officials say the Government of The Bahamas is also in the process of purchasing two desktop driving simulators, which will be utilized in the Road Safety Curriculum currently in place in the Secondary Schools.
“(The experience obtained from use of the simulators) will better prepare them for when they have to drive on live roads.”
Meanwhile, Police officials say they will continue to target what are known to be “high traffic” areas, particularly those in the western, eastern and central New Providence.
Officers say while congestion on the streets continues to be a “challenge” those members of the driving public who continue to operate their vehicles in a reckless manner “will be dealt with.”
“We will be targeting those persons who continue to break the law in the School Zones, the high business areas and within neighborhoods,” said Inspector Alphonso Pinder of the Police Traffic Division.
“We will crackdown on those persons. We are also still witnessing persons riding motorcycles without helmets and are continuing to ticket persons for driving their vehicles without the proper licensing and insurance and we want them to know that we are out there and that it is just a matter of time, before we catch those persons,” Inspector Pinder added.
