ACCORDING TO figures we have obtained from the Police Traffic Department there has been no dramatic impact on the level of road fatalities since the ticket system was introduced in April 1993.
From 1986, with a toll of 304 fatalities, there was an undulating increase to a peak of 444 in 1991. There was marginal decline from that level to 434 in 1993 when the ticketing began. Since then the deaths have stayed mostly in the high 300s, dipping to a low of 295 in 1999, but rising again to 353 last year.
These figures, however, may well have been influenced by the computer malfunction we reported in Thursday's page one lead story. The infamous Y2K bug, which caused worldwide concern at the turn of the century, apparently bit the computer system which powered the ticketing system.
As a consequence more than 200,000 traffic tickets have remained unpaid resulting in the loss of millions of revenue to the public purse. More to the point is that these thousands of motorists broke traffic laws with impunity, some repeatedly, since they could not be traced even though many may have had their licences suspended.
Even more unsatisfactory is the tentative management approach to the computer breakdown, wavering between replacing and upgrading the system. How many reckless drivers may have contributed to traffic fatalities is impossible to determine.
We are told that an IDB-funded project to upgrade the computer system was put to tender at the end of last year. Until that bears some fruit the present levels of road carnage may well continue as careless motorists continue to beat the system without penalty. They have nothing to fear but their own mortality a grim prospect indeed.
The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner.
