Authorities dragging their feet on testing not in the interest of citizens

By Marlon Madden

A historian and retired doctor as well as a prominent road safety advocate have accused successive governments of dragging their feet on breathalyser testing out of fear of losing political points.

In fact, President of the Barbados Road Safety Association (BRSA) Sharmane Roland-Bowen went further, charging that current and past administrations were more concerned about how businesses would be affected than about saving lives.

“I think they are dragging their feet. I do think it is political and we live in a country that puts money before the lives and safety of people,” an unapologetic Roland-Bowen told Barbados TODAY.

Earlier, Professor Emeritus Sir Henry Fraser referred to the failure to introduce the testing despite appeals made for decades, as “exceedingly political”.

“All of our governments have considered that breathalyser testing would lose them too many votes. It is really a terribly sensitive, political thing,” he said.

Although the amendments to the Road Traffic Act make provision for breathalyser testing, the implementation of the law, which came into effect on January 1, 2020, was stalled pending training for police officers and a public education programme.

After Police Public Relations Officer Acting Inspector Rodney Inniss announced in March 2022 that it would be rolled out from April 1, 2022, following extensive training, Attorney General Dale Marshall revealed that Cabinet had agreed not to proceed with the measure before metered taxi rates were introduced.

Government has still not given a timeframe for that to be realised.

Sir Henry Fraser

Sharing his thoughts on Friday at the Barbados Rum Experience lecture at the Radisson Aquatica Resort, where he spoke about some of the socio-cultural habits in Barbados relating to rum, Sir Henry recalled that as far back as 30 years ago, he organised a conference to convince the government at the time to introduce breathalyser testing “and to take a serious step about the accidents on the road because we regarded motor vehicle accidents as a public health issue”.

However, he said, no progress was made towards that. 

“We had that conference, we had one of the deputy police commissioners present with us. We got a lot of publicity from the media [but] the whole thing was ignored,” said the former university lecturer in medicine, adding that while talk about introducing breathalyser testing has been resuscitated several times, it has not yet been given life.

Roland-Bowen, who has been at the forefront of calls for breathalyser testing to be introduced, told Barbados TODAY that calls continued to fall on deaf ears because politicians have put self-interest and that of businesses ahead of citizens.

While commending the Mia Mottley administration for moving ahead with passing legislation to facilitate breathalyser testing, she expressed disappointment that the Government was citing the planned implementation of a metering system as the cause for its delay.

“They don’t seem to see the importance of saving people’s lives. They are finding all types of reasons and looking at businesses such as nightclubs losing out, because if that breathalyser testing comes in, you might have people buying [fewer] drinks,” she contended.

Pleading with the current government to exercise good judgment and bring breathalyser testing into effect, she said failure to act could result in more lives being lost.

“…. We can’t correct the decisions when some persons go out there and drink and take a life…. So let us be proactive and bring this thing so that no more life is lost on our roads when it comes to drunk driving,” she said.

“Why is it taking so long? Don’t tell me taxis [have] to get metres in them. It is wrong. This is for personal reasons; this is not for the country that you are delaying. Whether or not you want votes or businesses want money, you are putting yourself first and people are losing their lives and are becoming injured.

“The administrations feel that the persons who are pushing for the breathalyser are stupid because it has been happening for too long and they keep pushing it back for too long. Right now what is the position of getting these metres in the taxis that they used as an excuse?” Roland-Bowen asked.

She acknowledged that not all accidents were caused by drunk driving and admitted she was not aware of any proof that alcohol consumption contributed to road accidents or fatalities in Barbados. However, she said there was enough evidence globally that could be relevant to the Barbados situation.

“There is evidence elsewhere that where you have drunk driving laws and breathalyser testing, the collisions have been reduced in these countries that care about their people. But why don’t the administrations we have here care about people’s lives? We got to stop [not wanting] to step on people’s toes,” the BRSA head maintained.

With Road Safety Awareness Month being celebrated in December, Roland-Bowen said she was hoping that the breathalyser testing would be in place by now.

To mark the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, the BRSA will host a church service on Sunday, November 20, 2022 at the Covenant Life Teaching Centre in Green Hill, St Michael.

marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb