Barbados Police have no breathalizer laws to keep us safe.
Politicians and the rum and beer industry like it that way.
Another day, another horrific traffic accident with lives, faces and families ruined. You’re looking at what’s left of one of the two vans that collided in Arch Hall yesterday. Five people are in the hospital – at least two with “serious” injuries.
And, once again, our Royal Barbados Police Force cannot complete a professional accident investigation because we have no laws giving them power to demand tests to see how much the drivers had been drinking.
Successive Barbados governments promised to pass modern anti-drunk driving laws for decades but they lied and the carnage continues. Visitors from the United Kingdom have a 240% higher chance of being killed in a motor vehicle accident in Barbados than back at home.
Our culture embraces drinking and driving and, in the absence of an accident, a drinking driver is more likely to be viewed with humour rather than with concern.
Tourism and the Rum Industry don’t want to interfere with the party
We have to wonder how much the reluctance to pass anti-drinking driving laws has to do with the alcoholic beverage and tourism industries in Barbados. How much is given to political parties by those whose profits might be harmed by modern breathalyzer laws? How many people have died to keep the profits up?
Could it be that the reason our corrupt and uncaring politicians won’t pass modern laws is because the tourism and rum industries don’t want to stop the partying?
Further Reading
Our thanks to Barbados Today for the photo and their excellent coverage of major vehicle accidents. Barbados Today is doing their part to focus public attention on the slaughter happening on our roads.
Could it be that there is just a perception that drink-driving laws will adversly affect tourism? If so, it’s a misconception, because drink-driving laws are applied all over Europe and the United States, both of which have huge tourism industries. Visitors from these countries are used to living by those laws, and yet the beer/liquor industries are flourishing. It would be hard to convince me that the beer and rum industries in Barbados are paying-off anybody to keep such legislation off the books. More likely, the organisers of public fetes and those running bars might exert pressure because they labour under the same misconception. In Europe, it took time and some serious punishment to get the drink out of drivers, but the legislation has to be introduced first. Over time, people will learn to use designated drivers or use other means to comply with the law. It has to happen, or it could be that the lack of drink-driving laws will actually have the reverse effect on tourism, in that visitors will not come because of the danger.
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Drink and drive laws will not hurt the Barbados tourist industry , i am shure most tourist make a budget for taxis and i am of the opinion with the island in need of xtra revenue random breath test would help the economy , also why should the tourist think they will be ok to drink and drive whilst on holiday, its not allowed in europe or the u s plus this would stop some locals from going to the rum shop straight from work , and dont forget random stops by the police for lack of insurance , no taxes , and being unqualified drivers .
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Just a note of caution: your claim of “240% greater than in the UK” is not to be disputed – I saw the calculation – but by linking this figure to an article on drunk driving leads the reader to assume that we are all a nation of sloppy drunks who go out at night to see who we can mow down in our vehicles. The best analysis would be to compare number of road fatalities caused by drunk driving alone in the respective countries.
And so that there is no misunderstanding, I do not work for the rum or beer producers, neither own a bar or nightclub, nor a tourism establishment of any kind. I have no ulterior motive, and it is not an attack to suggest that the premise of the article is wrong. Oh, I am a Bajan who doesn’t drink, either.
Hi BGI
No problem speaking your mind to us. We appreciate it.
Your point would be valid except for one thing: there are no statistics on drunk driving fatalities in Barbados because there is no means of gathering data. First of all, drinking and driving is not an offense and even in a fatal accident the police have no way of knowing whether a driver is “over the limit” because there is no “over the limit” and no breathalyzer law. One has to be falling down drunk to be arrested and charged, so there are few charges laid and the number of charges do not reflect the true situation. More often than not a person arrested for drunk driving in Barbados is guilty of a bad attitude towards the police. With a good attitude the police are more likely to caution the driver to be careful and let them go on the way after choosing the “least drunk” person in the car to be the new driver. That is a true story.
We appreciate that our narrow roads can be a factor in accidents, but there are many narrow roads in the UK too. Perhaps poor vehicle condition is a factor. We seem to have way too many mass-casualty bus accidents too.
We’re not in a position to speak with any authority about anything to do with statistics and accidents etc., but as ordinary citizens with half our brain functioning, we can see that when there are no laws and coupled with a culture of drinking and driving, there is little the police can do on Saturday night except clean to up the mess and cart the bodies off to the morgue.
The culture in the UK is very much that of either having a designated driver or leaving the car at home and taking public transport, when going out for a night on the town. Even so, we still have problems with drink drivers, who all seem to think that they alone are good enough drivers to handle a skinfull of liquor way above the limits allowed by law.
Simply put. Putting drink driving legislation into effect will have no negative impact on tourism. The problem will continue to be the enforcement of existing legislation. A problem here in the UK as well as in Barbados.
PS: Here in the UK many of the larger commercial vehicles, notably lorries, have speed governors fitted. They cannot exceed 60 mph (from my understanding). Of course Barbados, with it’s much lower maximum speed limits, would impose a far lower one but it might well reduce the high-speed passenger vehicle smash ups if imposed on ZR vans and Transport Board buses. Just a thought.
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