Kelly's World | That's why police and taxi man can't 'gree

Police, in general, have a tough job, but especially those in Jamaica.

It seems like no matter where they go and whatever crimes they seek to eliminate, there's always something illegal happening somewhere else.

I know I went all traffic with my column last week, but I've got to head back to the road again.

Last Monday morning, I was in a line of traffic. What can I say? It's getting close to Christmas time. I'm not complaining.

There were two strong lanes of traffic but they were moving along at a steady pace.

So, of course, there had to be a third lane created by, guess who? Yep, taxi drivers.

Now let's get something clear. I'm not guessing as to whether they were taxis just because of the bad driving.

I know that they were taxi drivers because the big ol' red plates were on the vehicles. The writings on the sides were also quite evident.

At first, I saw one move around the line of traffic. Then a couple more. And then a couple more and you get the drift.

 

Reckless Move

 

By the time I got to the intersection where they couldn't make a third lane anymore, at least 10 of them had made the reckless move, just to cut out some of the traffic.

At one point, I thought it was a convoy. Maybe they were heading to a taxi man convention or something I didn't know about it.

Just because other motorists didn't want to get rammed by the marauding motorists, they moved out of the way if they could.

One BMW X5 driver had to do evasive moves to avoid a collision.

These are the same taxi drivers (maybe not this exact 10, but you know what I mean) who staged protests about the new Road Traffic Act.

They do realise that whatever sympathy they might have gained from some members of the public (not me) disappears when they behave the way they did Monday morning.

And, of course, there was not even one policeman on duty along the stretch of road at the time.

This is where I sympathise with the local cops. The High Command has spoken about the nearly 500,000 traffic tickets that have not been paid.

The police commissioner noted that there are more than 500 persons with more than 200 tickets each.

For all I know, at least one of the drivers I saw in action on Monday is among that group.

And that's why it is no wonder that the police can issue hundreds of tickets and yet we still see bad driving. The cops must be discouraged.

It's because the terrible Jamaican drivers never believe that they will get away more times than they are caught.

Monday's shenanigans would cement that for those who got away with it.

So imagine if there was a policeman or two patrolling that stretch and a few tickets were handed out.

Those same taxi men would cry how dem 'salt' and that 'Babylon nuh like dem'. Here's an idea. Follow the rules of the road. That might help.

Later.

- Link me at daviot.kelly@gleanerjm.com