Traffic Division Inspector Blades: How many drunk drivers did Barbados Police fail to stop?
With about double the population of Barbados, the city of Winnipeg, Canada makes for an interesting comparison when it comes to arresting drunk drivers.
Since December 3rd, the Winnipeg Police have stopped 1,422 vehicles in their annual month-long Christmas crackdown on drinking and driving. So far they have arrested 55 drunk drivers, of which 51 were male. The average age is 34 years old.
During the same period the Royal Barbados Police arrested this many drunk drivers…
(We don’t know because the RBPF don’t tell those statistics and the regular news media never asks.)
Presumably with half Winnipeg’s population, we’d expect the Barbados police to arrest perhaps 25 or so drunk drivers during the same period – assuming that the two populations have the same rate of drinking and driving and each police force is competent and concerned about drunk drivers.
Is there more drinking and driving in Barbados than in Winnipeg? The arrest statistics mean nothing because Barbados police generally don’t arrest anyone for drinking and driving unless they are falling down drunk and have been in an accident. And even then, sometimes the police allow a friend to come and get the drunk without charges.
(That’s the truth and can I have an Amen! to that from the cheap seats please.)
The Big Difference: No breathalysers
You know where this is going, of course. In Barbados we don’t have modern anti-drunk driving laws so our police are not able to use breathalyzer technology to take drunk drivers off the roads.
And, with no breathalysers and no effective laws there isn’t much of a deterrent to stop drunks from getting behind the wheel.
Traffic Deaths not important enough to Barbados politicians.
You can thank 14 years of BLP government and 3 years of DLP government for doing nothing to stop the carnage on our roads. As the Attorney General for much of the last three years, Barbados Prime Minister Freundal Stuart didn’t think that all the deaths from drunk driving were important enough to do something about.
You can pretty well sum it up like this: Stuart and his government could save lives but they choose not to.
Further Reading
Winnipeg Sun: Targeted response: Checkstops catching more drunk drivers
“Welcome to Winter Pig!”
Our thanks to one of our long time readers (“U”), who lives in Winnipeg, Canada. They kindly send us many article suggestions and leads. We don’t know if “U” is a Canadian who loves Barbados or a long lost Bajan, but in researching this article we came across this nickname for Winnipeg: “Winter Pig” !!!
Brrrrrrr! We hope “U” makes it to Barbados in January because I don’t think we’d want to visit them in a city “affectionately referred to as Winter-Pig”!!!
“Affectionately referred to as ‘Winter-pig’ by many of its local inhabitants, the climate in Winnipeg is exceptionally extreme, and the temperatures can range between 35° Celsius during the height of summer and down to -30° in the depths of winter.These climactic challenges will make relocating to Winnipeg a vigorous experience for those who love their outdoor activities.”
from Movers North America
Barbados Free Press 
http://jjb.yuku.com/topic/648990/t/Have-you-guys-seen-this-video-An-Australian-anti-DUI-video.html
It has been around before but the message is strong and should leave an impact.
You know, as much as I agree that drunk driving is a problem (done a bit of myself in my younger days and not afraid to say they we Bajans can hold ours better than others), personally I don’t think it is THE major issue with car accidents in Barbados, but more importantly I AM getting really sick and tired of Barbados being compared to the so-called ‘developed’ countries that have more serious issues than we do.
Long and short, our Police really have more serious issues to deal with than this, the Winnipeg Police are either over-manned and/or are not using their man-power effectively – i.e. they have nothing else useful to do – would have to check the relative statistics, … duh.
Quick check …
Winnipeg … Population: 674,800
Winnipeg … Police per Residents: 1/501
Barbados … Population: 265,000 (estimate)
Barbados … Police per Residents: 1/175 (estimate)
However remember Winnipeg is not an island and can easily call on Provincial assistance – like the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and other nearby resources – were we have at minimum 100 miles of open ocean from our nearest neighbours.
Winnipeg … Crimes Against Persons – Total for 2009: 10,698
Barbados … Crimes Against Persons – Total for 2009: 2,765
Winnipeg … Crimes Against Property – Total for 2009: 40,907
Barbados … Crimes Against Property – Total for 2009: 4,553
Winnipeg … Other Crimes – Total for 2009: 4,822
Barbados … Other Crimes – Total for 2009: 1,468
Winnipeg … Crime Grand Total – Total for 2009: 56,427
Barbados … Crime Grand Total – Total for 2009: 8,786
Winnipeg … Traffic Offences – Total for 2009: 163,903
Barbados … Traffic Offences – Total for 2009: 20,716
Winnipeg … Motor Vehicle Traffic Offences (2009):
# of Persons Charged – 2008 – 2009% Change
Dangerous Operation Causing Death 1 -50%
Dangerous Operation Causing Bodily Harm 9 – 29%
Dangerous Operation 75 – 15%
Dangerous Operation Evade Police 13 -35%
Impaired Operation Causing Death 0 -100%
Impaired Operation Causing Bodily Harm 16 – 78%
Impaired Operation or Over .08 (alc) 526 – 14%
Fail/Refuse to Provide Breath/Blood Sample 1 -93%
Barbados … Accident Statistics (2009):
FATAL SERIOUS SLIGHT W/OUT TOTAL
25 111 2,466 5,715 8317
No such totals given for Winnipeg for their 2009 report.
Now what can we glean from these comparative statistics, and we cannot consider non-reported crimes (especially in the case of Barbados) as that is NOT the fault of the Police Force – sorry, no excuses allowed here – you should report it!
I would say that I would NOT want to live in Winnipeg … period.
However, returning to topic – drunk driving – I would guess that the Winnipeg Police ‘happen’ to find them because they are out looking for such a HIGH number of OTHER more serious crimes, compared to us here in Barbados.
Fair assessment?!
@ David G. Brooks
not afraid to say they we Bajans can hold ours better than others
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Wrong David – that is self-delusion. You use statistics to prove one matter, but totally ignore the statistics that prove that drinking impairs one’s ability to drive safely. To suggest that one tiny island in the Atlantic somehow has a population that can hold its drink is laughable. If if you are better than someone else at not showing the symptoms of drinking, your reaction times are still slower, and your critical decision-making is impaired. Time to take your head out of the sand.
I would have liked to use statistics to show that speed, texting, using cellphones without hands-free kits and stupid driving seems to be a major factors, in vehicular accidents on our roads. I could only assume that drunk driving is also a factor and since i don’t have any stats could the Police or driving associations show any?
People shouldn’t forget that enforcement makes the public aware of their actions and brings home the damage inflicted on many lives.
In places like Winnipeg, these spot checks can be profit centers for the City in addition to TV shows which help increase public awareness.
Do we really want to be a police state like winnipeg or anywhere else in canada? The real motive behind these check points is to shake down the tax payer for other moving violations like seat belts and vehilce registration tags etc to pad crown revenue. They are pure and simple police harrassment and make work project the the grossly bloated, lazy ranks of the canadian police “services”. This outragious violation of civil rights has been going on for decades now and hasnt done a thing to curb drunk driving. Yes it is a tradegy when someone is harmed by a drunk driver but this problem is better dealt with thru education than giving the police more powers to harrass citizens.