Reader reports from Arch Cot Inquest: Coroner lacked copy of government report!

“And why the france the Coroners Court don’t have they own copy of a government report? And why lawyers for the Codrington family had to give the Chief Town Planner the reference number for documents in his own office?”

BFP reader Gift of Justice on our article More Damning Evidence that Arch Cot Inquest is a last-minute sham

Many witnesses in court, but nothing happening. Lots of talk but no testimony.

Well January 14th (next Inquest date) is Donavere’s birthday. Can we expect a gift of justice on this day or will the inquest continue as usual with very little testimony and most of the time spent planning who to call to testify next?

Welcome to Barbados where drinking and driving is legal. Don’t ask about the fatal accident statistics.

Updated: July 30, 2012 – Elma Moore dies in vehicle accident.

Another weekend, another motor vehicle accident death. Elma Moore died on Saturday night.

It’s Crop Over: people die because of the drinking and partying. No big deal to a DLP government who promised and failed to implement breathalizer testing and dedicated anti-drunk driving laws.

Elma Moore died in a three-car accident. There was no breathalizer to enable the police to determine if anyone had been drinking to any extent, and certainly no way of knowing if any of the involved drivers is a practiced alcoholic: smashed but able to appear sober. Only a breathalizer can tell if a driver has been drinking and to what extent: visual observations are not enough especially when dealing with practiced drunks.

Elma Moore is dead.

Some politician will talk the talk about being more careful when driving during Crop-over, but as far as implementing the promised breathalizer laws: like the BLP government before it, the DLP government lied. At BFP we’ve been writing this same article over and over again for seven years and through a host of Attorneys General who couldn’t care less about drunk driving fatalities.

Welcome to our tourist friends from the UK. You have about a 240% greater chance of death from a motor vehicle accident in Barbados than back home.

Enjoy your stay.

Original article published December 7, 2010…

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.