Don’t be passive but active. Report bad driving

Madam – Arrive Alive has just retweeted a tweet by the Department of Transport which reads as follows: “Don’t be passive but active. Report bad driving”.

This is of course another example of the rhetoric surrounding driver behaviour on our roads, but following last week’s letter titled “Lawlessness stinks”, I would like to mount a campaign to put pressure on our traffic department and law enforcers, namely our traffic officers to start being proactive in combating lawlessness on our roads, and no better place to start than within the streets of our own town, Newcastle.

Since behaviour is learnt, I would like to suggest that traffic officers become instrumental in helping some drivers (as well as pedestrians), unlearn their bad habits and replace them with respect for the law and other road users.

Every major intersection along Allen Street has become a death trap in recent months, where it has increasingly become fashionable for drivers to overshoot red robots, use the wrong lanes to turn, omit using indicators, as well as to stop abruptly to allow passengers to embark or disembark, whether this obstructs another driver’s right of way or not.

If we could have four traffic officers at the four points of each intersection, randomly at the different intersections monitoring and enforcing road rules, I do believe that slowly we would start reinforcing good driver behaviour, as opposed to the current lawlessness.

Please can those who support such a campaign write to the Traffic Department, or alternatively start a petition in this regard. As we embark on child protection week, I think that it is apt to reflect on the carnage on our roads and the many children who have lost their lives because someone played Russian Roulette with their lives through undisciplined, arrogant and reckless behaviour.

Gatvol of Lawlessness