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Drunk driving, not using seatbelts, and speeding remain major causes of road deaths in Trinidad and Tobago. The good news however is that fatal road accidents have been on a downward trend for the past two decades.
In a report published in yesterday’s Sunday Express, the T&T Police Service (TTPS) sought to preserve these gains by warning about a “significant upsurge” in the number of drunk drivers. Senior Supt in the Traffic and Highway Patrol Branch, David Powder disclosed that 244 drivers had been charged for driving under the influence (DUI) for the year. Police Road Safety Project Coordinator Sgt Brent Batson also indicated that, for 2024, the TTPS traffic units had already issued 3,536 speeding tickets to drivers and 8,820 tickets for seatbelt violations.
Thirty-seven people have lost their lives in road traffic accidents so far in 2024, compared to 41 for the same period last year. That’s an 11% decrease, but the timeframe is not sufficiently long to signify a trend. However, if we compare data for five-year periods between 2007-2011 and 2014-2018, the improvement in road safety is clear.
Between 2007 and 2011, there were 931 fatal accidents which resulted in 1,083 deaths. From 2014 to 2018, there were 604 fatal accidents resulting in 711 deaths. Thus, the annual average of 186 fatal vehicle accidents dropped to 129, and the average of 216 deaths declined to 142. This is out of an average of 36,000 accidents a year between 2010-2016, according to figures from the Traffic Branch, in a country with over one million vehicles.
The lowest number of traffic deaths in the past two decades occurred in 2021, with 69 fatal accidents resulting in 75 deaths. This drop was mostly due to the pandemic lockdown, but the subsequent uptick in 2023 to 96 accidents and 102 deaths was still lower than all previous years.
Without a doubt, the overall reduction is due in large part to the good work of the TTPS and Arrive Alive. However, constant vigilance is needed to preserve this trend. Supt Powder assured the Sunday Express that his officers are maintaining a consistent level of enforcement of road traffic regulations. Such initiatives would be even more effective if fine-grained data were gathered to analyse specific factors behind the decline in road deaths. Is it also the heftier fines being issued by magistrates? Do vehicles now have better safety features? Has the average age of drivers changed?
This kind of information would help the police pursue more targeted responses, as well as better-tailored messaging about road safety. What we do know from Traffic Branch statistics is that 80% of road fatalities are men and over half of those occur in two age groups–15-29 and 30-44. Moreover, while drivers are 2.5 times more likely to be killed than passengers, pedestrian deaths are almost on par with drivers.
So, we know which cohorts need to be more careful, and who the authorities should focus on. There is still a long way to go, but it seems we are on the right road.
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