Take it slower – road safety advocate

Barbados Road Safety Association (BRSA) President, Sharmane Roland Bowen is urging authorities to adopt a “phased” approach to the implementation of breathalyzer testing which will shield motorists from random testing, while imposing mandatory testing for persons involved in serious accidents.

Roland Bowen stressed that although the promised testing is important, many Barbadians remained poorly informed about the laws governing drunk driving.

As a result, Roland-Bowen suggested that only persons involved in serious accidents should be tested immediately if officers have reason to believe they were under the influence of alcohol.

“I’m not talking about a minor fender bender. I am talking about accidents with injuries and more serious accidents.  This would be of great help in cases where persons are involved in accidents,” aid the BRSA President.

She added: “Obviously we cannot tell police officers what to do, but where the road safety association stands is that we would like to see a phased approach at this time because not enough education has been given and if we want people to comply with laws, they need to know why and be educated and in perhaps two months we can also educate people about the breathalyzer testing and tell them what it’s all about, what are the limits and answer the questions they have been asking the association.”

Motorists found guilty of driving under the influence of alcohol face fines of $5,000 or two years in prison. Police officers will be carrying out the tests with a handheld Portable Breath Test (PBT) which provides a measurement of a driver’s deep lung alcohol concentration or breath alcohol and the current limit is 35 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 milliliters of breath.

Roland-Bowen told Barbados TODAY that leading to January 1 implementation date more people had been inquiring about the test.

“People have been reaching out and are hopeful and thankful for it. They have been relaying incidents where persons or their family members have been involved in accidents and they know that the person that caused it was really drunk to the point that they could not stand up and you can smell it, but because there is no testing, there is no evidence to prove that the person was drunk in the first place,” she said.

Roland Bowen again noted that the implementation of breathalyzer testing falls inline with the decade of action for road safety which started in 2011 and ends in 2020. She also stressed that with hundreds of returning nationals invited to come home for We Gatherin’ Barbados 2020, the road safety measures would go far in keeping people out of harm’s way.
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb