Can we ever count on safely using the roads? Are the roads something of a graveyard most Singaporeans knew nothing about?
It is becoming increasingly apparent that cars and vehicles are becoming lethal weapons of choice and that most motorists who indulge in it, are committing what the public may demand of them to stop.
In statistics given to the public the Traffic Police (TP) Commander Sam Tee said, “Out of those cases (meaning cases involving drivers cruising against the flow of traffic), we find that majority of the incidents that happened, the drivers had actually entered into the lanes unintentionally”. That indicates perhaps, a serious lapse in the driver’s road concentration and inattention or to some possible incidence of him or her being under the influence of sedating medication or worse still, of alcohol.
Currently, TP uses cameras that can automatically detect drivers who beat traffic lights or speed. “This is an area we are looking at – whether we can use technology to help us detect vehicles going against the flow of traffic, whether intentionally or unintentionally,” SAC Tee was reportedly have told Singapore media.
The case of dangerous and reckless driving is indeed cause for alarm. In a phone interview with The Independent a school official from Rivervale Primary School told of some 3 cases of near-misses in 2016 involving children under his ward and motor vehicles who defy and beat traffic lights. Most of these incidents happen at the pedestrian crossing before the school premises, which is used daily and incessantly by students of that school.
Owing to such hazardous situations and the reckless abandon, the school is working assiduously with the authorities to beat the situation before it gets beaten by it.
Reckless road driving is not treated with the severity it now demands of it. Offenders are usually given jail time and the confiscation of their driving licenses instead of being slapped for culpable homicide arraignment and commensurate penalties.
Nor have there been efforts to invent on any kind of a device that could be fitted into vehicles to scent and register the alcohol content of motorists and have those findings reported to police stations or cruising patrol cars as in an ostensible way to beat the menace caused by reckless road usage.