Delay is dangerous!

Fri May 10, 2013

Editor: On Friday, April 26, I wrote an article in the newspaper concerning the dangerous practice of parents/motorists allowing their children to do as they feel, by allowing them to stand on the vehicle seats or between the driver and passenger seats, while they, the parents, are driving. I stressed the danger of this. {{more}}However, lo and behold, on Monday, April 29, just three days later, I witnessed an incident where both parents were in the front seats of a car and a small child was on the back seat, opening the back door of the car. It took some passersby to draw this to the parents’ attention.

My question is “Why were seatbelts created, if not for the safety of the traveling public?” If I remember correctly, I believe that there was a law passed here in St Vincent and the Grenadines that indicated that the use of a seat belt is mandatory or persons would be charged. Unfortunately, like so many other laws made here, there seems to be no implementation of this. We bash the young people when they reach adolescence and start to behave unruly and disrespectful, but we, the parents, are to be blamed. Why shut the stable when the horse is already out?

One of the things that hurt me most is that persons who are in leadership position in this country are some of the culprits. I remember seeing one of these same persons speeding across a road in Sharpes with his son in the vehicle. When I met him later I told him that what he had done was not safe. His reply was that it is what the child wanted. Mind you, the child was standing on the front seat with his head out of the window. I am amazed at how our people have lost it.

We see good as evil and evil as good. God never destroyed a city without sending a warning, so I am appealing to the relevant authorities to do something about it. We have a tendency in this country to wait until something terrible happens to do something about it, but just remember, it pains now, don’t let it become a river of tears.

You see, I don’t have any toddlers of my own, but I have a wonderful granddaughter; so the same thing that I want for her, I want for other children.

Clifford E. Gould