And with all this mayhem on the roadways - who does the buck stop with? The police? Well, it's not really their job? Town and city administrators? Well, it's not their job either to enforce on highways. That would be the primary purview of the Transport Department. Under the road safety project they were given the tools and the vehicles to enforce effectively - so does the blame for lax enforcement fall to them?
We spoke with the Chief Transport Officer via zoom this evening:
Leon Gentle, Chief Transport Officer
"It's sad and we're hoping that at some point we will be able to get a hold of what leads to this entire dynamic that we're facing in the country. It just continues to be challenging and we're hoping that at some point that we can get it under control."
Jules Vasquez
"Was this a failure of enforcement?"
Leon Gentle, Chief Transport Officer
"I wouldn't call it similar, well I would just say that it was a failure of enforcement but there are so many factors that played into that. The first thing that was wrong in my humble opinion was a decision that was made to have nine persons in a vehicle."
"Blowing past a checkpoint would have been an element that would be lack of resources and not necessarily a lack of enforcement. The level of enforcement was there and there was some evasion of that enforcement."
"What I see needs to happen is for us to take a proactive approach and that has been lacking. If they were coming from across the border, if that was where it initially oriented, we can only assume, because we don't know the fact that there must have been liquor involved. Hence the reason for trying to evade the checkpoint because obviously there would have been a level of enforcement there. We have been in dialogue with the police department across the country, not specifically just for Cayo, but for us to have a level of presence on the highway especially during this festive time."
Jules Vasquez
"Yeah but you know I mean it's happening in real time."
Leon Gentle, Chief Transport Officer
"It is."
Jules Vasquez
"I'm saying that you're late."
Leon Gentle, Chief Transport Officer
"Well we can't determine when an accident would happen."
Jules Vasquez
"But we are in December. We're in December."
Leon Gentle, Chief Transport Officer
"But we have been having these discussions Jules. It's not only discussions but they have been having patrols in urban and rural areas. they have been having checkpoints all over the country. I mean, we hear it almost every morning and every evening, Man, you guys are slowing us down to get home, because we want to ensure that there's a level of presence to deter persons from making decisions that are not in the best interest of safety."
Jules Vasquez
"One of the knocks against the transport department is that you all don't like to do late checkpoints. You all want to do the latest checkpoint eight o'clock and we know that late at night is when people really start to get dangerous and on the road and drunk."
"Explain to me what is the expectation for your transport officers to do late night checkpoints?"
Leon Gentle, Chief Transport Officer
"A part of our function is definitely to provide that level of support. What hinders us from having that level of checkpoints at night is the level of security. You might pull up to a checkpoint and there may be someone who is aggressive and that's the reason for collaborating with the police department and so we have been having some checkpoints all up until 10 o'clock 11 o'clock sometimes especially on the western corridor in that area."
Jules Vasquez
"But for the avoidance of doubt it's your job it's the department of transport's job to ensure road safety as long as secondary duty of the police department. It's transport department's fundamental duty."
Leon Gentle, Chief Transport Officer
"Agreed. Prior to the department of transport being formulated in 2003 you would know that the police department that was one of their goals as well, so it's a collaborative effort. While it's our primary function, we also have to not underscore the fact that general resources in terms of human capacity, in terms of mobility, in terms of access to the area and the spread, we have to increase that level of human resource in our department to be able to provide a 24-7 highway patrol element."
