The 'shottas' are loose
published: Wednesday | September 3, 2003
THE EDITOR, Sir:
I FEEL compelled to write to you in an appeal to all Jamaicans who actively use the roadways. On Monday, August 18, 2003, I received the disturbing news that my aunt was killed in a motor vehicle accident. The accident, by all accounts, was caused by a bus driver who thought it best to overtake a line of traffic on the McCook's Pen Main Road in St. Catherine. A family has lost a mother, a wife, a sister, a daughter and an aunt. Still countless others have lost a true friend. Through my grief, I realise that my family's experience is not unique.
On Monday, August 25, 2003, exactly one week later, another fatal accident occurred on the Mt. Rosser main road in St. Catherine. Again, a bus driver thought it best to overtake a line of traffic, with the result of four deaths, inclusive of himself. Interestingly, I understand, he was referred to as "Shotta Chris". I wonder how many other "Shotta" drivers are still loose on our streets?
What is it that bus and taxi drivers do not understand? Negligent driving practices will inevitably lead to accidents and invariably loss of life or at least some displacement. Bus drivers indeed, all drivers must exercise restraint and patience on our road ways and work together to rid our land of so much unnecessary carnage.
Our prosecutors, the police and the justice system need to take a zero tolerance approach to offenders who many times escape the accidents they have caused with little or no injury.
