Increase in the number of road fatalities : should licences be revoked for life?

Days go by and the graph continues to take an upward trend. Indeed the number of road accident victims has already crossed the line of 122 up to date. Should severe measures like lifetime revocation of the driving licence be introduced?

Would the number of road victim accidents exceed that of last year’s? At least this is what the statistics are indicating up to now. As statistics indicate, during the first semester of 2017 (January to June), some 73 persons died as a result of road accidents against 72 during the corresponding period of 2016, showing an increase of 1.4%.

Not a day goes by without the news of a fatal road accident and lives being lost. The latest fatal accident took place on Monday at Cotteau-Raffin where a  baby girl, only 10 days old, lost her life due to careless driving. During the year 2016, some 144 persons died as a result of road accidents against 139 in 2015, showing an increase of 3.6%. Up to date, the number of deaths is more than 122.

Statistics reveal that the number of casualties (fatalities and persons injured as a result of road accidents) went up by 4.1% from 1,925 during the first semester of 2016 to 2,004 during the corresponding period of 2017. Why does the number of fatalities continue to increase? What measures should be taken to break the upward trend in the upcoming festive months? Manoj Raj Kumar, Secretary of the Approved Driving Instructor Association and Raffick Bahadoor, President of the General Taxi Owners’ Union (GTOU) share their views on the heated debate.

Manoj Raj Kumar : “Licences should be revoked for life only in relapsing cases”

The Secretary of the Approved Driving Instructor Association trusts that careless driving is a major issue in Mauritius. “Careless driving is recurring in our society. I trust that careless drivers should be severely sanctioned. Lifetime licence revocation can be done but only in cases where the driver has relapsed. If not, the license can be revoked for months and years.

It should be revoked according to the degree and gravity of the offence he/she has committed. The more serious the offence, the more severe should be the sentence and the revocation,” utters Manoj Raj Kumar.

The more serious the offence, the more severe should be the sentence and the revocation."

The latter explains that careless drivers do not worry about the lives of other people and also about their driving licence. “These people are not thinking about protecting others or protecting their driving licence. They put everyone’s lives in danger. So if their licence is revoked even for some months, this will have an effect on them.” Manoj Raj Kumar believes that people who commit road offences without consuming alcoholic drinks are worse than those who don’t. “Those who commit offences without drinking is a more serious scenario, as they are fully conscious of what they are doing. Their careless driving should thus be sanctioned.” The Secretary of the Approved Driving Instructor Association trusts that it is mainly mindsets and mentalities that cause many road accidents in Mauritius. “People cannot dissociate from their narrow mindsets when they are on the road. This thus influences their driving.”

Raffick Bahadoor : “There is no other way than lifetime revocation”

For the President of the General Taxi Owners’ Union (GTOU), the Minister of Transport is not doing enough to remediate this perilous situation. “How many years will go by and how many lives will continue to be lost before the Minister takes necessary actions? There are a series of measures that should be taken in order to curb the number of road fatalities. Minister Nando Bodah is not taking drastic measures. Desperate situation calls for desperate measures.”

Licences should be immediately revoked in Hit and Run cases where people have lost their lives and families have been broken."

Raffick Bahadoor argues that we must look at the root cause of this recurrent problem. “To begin with, we do not even have a law regarding pedestrians and scooters. Young people without licences are driving scooters around the island. There are no adequate pavements for pedestrians in some places. Both sides of the road are filled with parked cars, among other issues. So there is a lot of work to be done by our Ministry.”

Raffick Bahadoor is categoric. He trusts that licences should be revoked in cases like Hit and Run. “I strongly believe that a driver’s licence should be revoked for life in cases like Hit and Run and drunk driving. For example, licences should be immediately revoked in Hit and Run cases where people have lost their lives and families have been broken. No delay should be given. This will definitely create an impact on other drivers. In cases of drunk driving, this statement is very clear: ‘You cannot drink and drive’. If the Minister wants to resolve the problem, then licences should be revoked completely. There should not be anything like measuring the alcohol level in blood (in milligrams). No drinking no driving, that’s it.”
The President of the General Taxi Owners’ Union (GTOU) calls to the Minister of Transport for a face to face debate in order to address this issue. “We have the necessary competencies here. I believe that we can remedy to the situation without the help of international experts.”