65% of road users admit to breaking the law daily - watch this video

posted on: Apr 15 2011 10:40 by The Reporter. Viewed 582 times.


A recent survey by a a Miami based polling company identified that 65% of road users in the Dominican Republic freely admit to breaking the law on a daily basis. The most common infractions that we all see on a daily basis are riding motorbikes without a helmet and driving (or riding) while texting or talking on a cellphone.
Other common violations are riding or driving the wrong way on a one-way street, going through red lights, recklessly overtaking, and riding on the wrong side of the road.
And of course, around half of the road users do not even have a valid license.
Only one in a thousand drivers ever uses their indicators to indicate they intend to turn left or right, and taxi drivers go one step further and will stop without any indication to pick up a possible fare. Every day we see them holding up a line of traffic or a near accident because they show blatant disregard for anyone else on the road.
The standard of overtaking would be funny of it wasn't so dangerous. But every day people die or are seriously injured here because a bus, truck or car attempted to overtake another vehicle in a downright stupid fashion.
Every day we see trucks rush through Cabarete high street with their horns blaring. The concept of slowing down to a safe speed so they could avoid people crossing the road is mute. A horn is the only tool they need.
In fact a horn is more important to drivers here than any other part of the behicle. It doesn't matter if the brakes don't work, the steering is dicey, and the wheels are about to drop off. A loud horn makes up for all these other devices. All you need on a vehicle is an accelerator and a horn to tell everybody else to get out of the way.
It's easy to blame AMET for not doing anything about these infractions which we all see every day, but police officers don't have it that easy.
One of the fundamental problems appears to be that road users have no respect for the police.
Watch the following video and you will see what I mean.

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