As the carnage on our roads continues, we note that the Ministry of Transport and Works is now engaged in discussions with the former franchise holders of the The National Transport Cooperative Society (NTCS) group to enter into new arrangements with them allowing them to continue to provide transportation on certain routes.

I hope the authorities are as mindful as we, the citizens, are of the need to ensure that any new licensing arrangements for these operators must be undergirded by strict rules and protocol.

It must be made abundantly clear to these operators that the public will not continue to accept the reckless abandon with which they drive. They must be made to know that they will be held to a higher standard of operation than private motorists. After all, they are carrying several people at any one time and an accident involving their vehicle is likely to result in more injuries and deaths than the private operator.

The Government should now be drafting new laws to take to Parliament, ensuring that the penalties suit the crime, unlike the slap-on-the-wrist sanctions that now exist.

Three strikes, out

We should be adopting the 'three strikes and you are out' laws, and drivers should be sent to prison if found guilty of reckless and dangerous driving over a certain specific period, whether the driving results in a fatal accident or not. In these new laws should be a provision to have all public-passenger vehicles starting with government's own Jamaica Urban Transit Corporation buses fitted with governors that would prevent them from being driven over a certain speed. These large buses are virtual weapons of mass destruction if driven at the speed I have observed recently. There should be a gradual implementation across all public-passenger vehicle types over the next two years.

While we are at it, let's also include the monster trailer cabs that are driven oftentimes by people who appear to have no clue of the potential havoc that an accident with these vehicles can cause.

I am, etc.,

Winston Barrett

wdbarrett123@yahoo.com