CURRENT HIGHWAY development must have been prompted primarily to accommodate the great increase in the number of vehicles on the road in recent years.
Our lead story in yesterday's Gleaner now points to other urgent factors affecting the flow of traffic and the new safety standards required.
With over 260 persons killed in motor vehicle accidents so far this year, road safety needs urgent attention. Yesterday's lead story reported that there have been 89 accidents on the Old Harbour segment of Highway 2000; and 36 per cent of these accidents have been attributed to tyre blow-outs.
This raises the question of the current procedures in place to ensure that vehicles are roadworthy. In theory this should be indicated by an up-to-date Certificate of Fitness. As we understand it, this certificate is procured after the payment of a fee at a tax office which precedes actual examination of the vehicle at a depot where engine and brakes are tested as well as tyre pressures and a visual inspection of tread wear.
It appears that there is no requirement for any in-depth testing of tyre quality. So the tyre failures recorded by the Toll Authority have happened in the absence of any regulations to guard against these happening.
As our report also states, the Bureau of Standards is only now developing a set of standards to deal with this matter. Many vehicles, it seems, are being imported with inappropriate tyres.
It appears therefore that the procedures to ensure vehicle safety insofar as their fitness for the road is concerned must be thoroughly reviewed. Payment of a fee for a Certificate of Fitness without the actual testing of the vehicle is said to be common practice, simply because the great number of vehicles to be processed in this way invite short-circuiting of the process.
With more miles of modern highway to be built to enable speedier transit the factor of greater safety standards must be addressed without delay.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
