This island’s most senior police officer wants to see the brakes put on off-road motorcycles amidst a near ten per cent rise in road accidents so far this year, as well as an increase in fatalities.
When Commissioner of Police Tyrone Griffith presented the latest statistics to the media today, he did not say how many of the 4,257 road accidents recorded between January and June this year involved dirt bikes.
However, he pointed to a 9.6 per cent increase in accidents, compared to the 3,883 recorded for the corresponding period last year.
There were 18 fatal accidents resulting in 20 deaths during the six-month period under review, compared to 14 fatal accidents during the same period last year resulting in 17 deaths.
Stopping short of blaming dirt bike operators for any of the accidents, Griffith said they were creating “havoc” on the island’s roads, therefore, the time had come to put a ban on them.
“We shall continue to engage in various strategies to curb the level of recklessness on our roads. Legislative adjustments are contemplated for the purpose of addressing the havoc caused by motorcyclist. We shall continue to search for creative resolutions and interventions to these problems,” he told the media at a briefing at police headquarters on Roebuck Street, The City.
When pressed on the issue, Griffith, who indicated he had already met with Prime Minister Mia Mottley on a range of issues, did not provide details, but said it was becoming increasingly difficult to “deal with those persons who are on these scrambler bikes”.
“One has to ask the question, what benefits these cycles are really to people other than people who want to engage in as a sporting activity? However, when it ventures onto the roadways it can become a difficult proposition. As a result, my thinking is that maybe we have reached a point where they should be outlawed. When one looks at the benefit maybe they should be outlawed. So that in itself would ease the problem of persons engaging in those stunts with those motorcycles,” he said.
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