Putting the brakes on road accidents

Kenrick Webster, Director
of Transportation, Cayman
Islands Tourism
Association (CITA)

Wednesday,  January 26, 2005

Unfortunately, motor vehicle accidents are not like other accidents. In these accidents lives are not only disrupted, they are sometimes lost and because of the tragedies in relation to human life our thinking moves quickly from dismissing motor accidents as unfortunate, to seeking to source and arrest the things that may seed their occurrence.

Over the past few weeks the Cayman Islands has seen a more-than-normal rate of occurrence of motor vehicle accidents within a short time frame. The details of these accidents aside, there is already serious thinking being applied to what is now being viewed as a potential problem on an island where precipitous terrain issues are immediately ruled out.

To properly address road accidents, Cayman Islands Tourism Association Director of Transportation, Kenrick Webster, said: “We need to start from the foundation elements.”

Mr Webster sees many benefits to increasing the age at which licences are issued to young drivers. “Moving the driving age from 17 to 21 years will ensure that we have drivers on the road who are more mature and not easily affected by the power that a motor vehicle offers,” he explained. 

“Young Caymanians will also be able to focus on their education during these four years and not on getting themselves financially committed to working towards a motor vehicle when they are not fully able to do so,” he added.

Mr Webster also said that it should be a requirement for learner drivers to receive a minimum of three lessons through a recognised driving school. “The danger of parents or friends teaching children and passing on bad road habits is grounds for the implementation of such a requirement,” Mr Webster added.

Thirdly, Mr Webster proposed that people should only be able to receive licenses when they have learned on standard motor vehicles and not on automatic ones. “When learning on a standard, we are able to groom a much more conscious and patient driver. Drivers learn how to listen to their engines and learn more about their vehicles. In addition, during the learning process, the instructors and examiners have dual control inside the vehicle,” Mr Webster explained.

Mr Webster also sought to underscore the need for Road Examiners to be constantly rigid with potential drivers.

“Testing for all drivers who are over 70 years old should be implemented,” Mr Webster said. This proposal was rooted in the fact that even now, within the taxi service, drivers over a certain age are not approved without having a medical and road tests. In addition, Mr Webster explained that some older Caymanians never had to do tests, and, with that, some did not even learn how to parallel park. “Now, with the development that has taken place on the Islands, one cannot operate in George Town without knowing how to parallel park,” said Mr Webster.

“These measures should result in a major improvement in the behaviour of drivers and the situation on the road. However we should also seek to implement a points system for drivers licence holders,” said Mr Webster. 
Such a system encourages a driver to have a clean driving record. “It is a virtual safety gadget for managers in the transportation arena – ensuring that persons are not just being stopped for misdemeanours by officers, paying fines and then moving on and forgetting about them.

With that the potential is greater for fined drivers to do the same thing again if they know there will be no lasting effects to the ability to use the roads as a driver. This measure not only provides a record of behaviour on the road for transportation officials but also for insurance providers,” Mr Webster explained.

Back...