Found at: http://www.anguillaguide.com/article/articleprint/5765/-1/140/
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ROAD SAFETY CAMPAIGN TO HALT DANGEROUS DRIVING
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A campaign involving the Royal Anguilla Police Force, the Governor’s Office and Government Departments in the United Kingdom is now in place aimed at addressing the increasing problem of dangerous driving and the need to ensure safety on the island’s roads.
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L-R: Joe Legg, Sgt. Brooks and Deputy Illidge Richardson
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Staff Officer at the Governor’s Office, Joe Legg, was at Wednesday’s police press briefing to join Sergeant-in-Charge of the Traffic Department, Marva Brooks, in particular, to speak about the campaign and other related matters.
“The campaign has been in the planning stage for a number of months and is being funded by the Overseas Territories Programme Fund,” In making the first part of the announcement, Sergeant Brooks told the media: “This campaign is a pilot project to see if using the printed and audio media it can be effective in getting road safety messages across. It will run for four weeks from this week’s edition of The Anguillian.
“We also have a number of posters which we will be putting out. The posters are about the traffic lights, a reminder to persons of what the light sequence means, how to approach and use the roundabouts; speeding – aimed at those persons who do not know what kilometres translate to miles per hour; stopping distances - advising drivers of the required distances to safely stop a vehicle.
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Police Officials and Joe Legg at press briefing
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“The radio advertisements will concentrate on speeding. Two different messages will be aired on Radio Anguilla and Upbeat Radio. Both messages are about 30 seconds and are aimed to get drivers to think about their speed.
“We are also planning to do a ‘Drive Left’ booklet aimed at all drivers (residents and visitors alike), covering tips in the newspaper ads.
“The final week of the campaign will take place at the end of March to April 4 to tie in with the Road Safety Debate taking place at the UN on March 31.
Meanwhile, Sergeant Brooks gave details of the number of traffic accidents which the police are facing on a regular basis and which led to the campaign. There were 34 accidents in January, 27 minor and five serious and the other two were undetected. There were 42 in February with 7 serious and 1 fatal. So far, up to Wednesday morning this week, there were already 15 accidents for March.
In the second part of the announcement, Mr. Legg spoke about the cooperation between the three agencies mentioned earlier, which brought about the campaign. “The Governor’s Office through the Overseas Territories’ Programme Fund is funding a week’s attachment for Sergeant Brooks to the Driving Standards Agency in the United Kingdom,” he revealed. “It is the UK Department for Transport…that deals with the whole process of the driving tests, from how the test is constructed to how it is delivered. It also includes the training of driving instructors and the driving test examiners.
“We have worked up a week’s programme for Sergeant Brooks who will be going to visit various driving test centres to see the firsthand delivery of cars, motor cycles and trucks for their driving tests. She will be accompanying the UK’s Assistant Chief Driving Instructor for that day.
“The following day, Tuesday, Sergeant Brooks will go down to one of the local driving test centres in Nottingham where the Driving Standards Agency has its UK Headquarters. She will spend the day there shadowing the Driving Test Centre Manager so that she can get a feel of how the whole operation runs there.
“On the Wednesday will be a day at the Operations Headquarters of the Driving Standards Agency when she will look at the theory test at the centre to see how they do the paper side of the driving test in the UK.
“On Thursday, 1st April, Sergeant Brooks will then go down to the Agency’s Training Centre at Cardington in Bedfordshire. She will spend the whole day there, gaining an insight into how the training for the driving tests examiners and instructors is undertaken. We are hoping to finish the attachments with a day’s attachment with a local roads policing unit, aimed at indoctrinating and opening current UK road police thinking to Anguilla.
“As I said, it is part of a pilot project to see where we can improve driving standards across the whole of Anguilla,” Mr. Legg stated. “I would like to put on record my thanks to the Police Force here and to the Driving Standards Agency in the UK for working with the Governor’s Office to get this programme up and running.”
Mr. Legg said that the driving practice in Anguilla was not a matter for the Governor’s Office to comment on. “Our role here is purely facilitation,” he explained. “The role of the Governor’s Office is not only to represent Britain’s interest in the territory, but to represent Anguilla’s interest in the UK; and this is a good example of doing that, where we can use our influence with other Government Departments in the UK to help make improvements in Anguilla.”
Other Police Matters – Crime etc
In other matters, Sergeant Randolph Yearwood reported on various incidents which came to the police attention during the period March 5-12. He said there were 13 crimes. Three of them were burglaries at Junks Hole, West End and The Valley. The stolen items included a television set, a cellular phone, a float and shovel.
There were four thefts at Cul de Sac, The Valley, South Hill and Little Harbour. Stolen were one ram goat, US$800 and EC$170, PVC and electrical pipes and fittings, one box of snap ties, four boxes of nails and a pallet of blocks.
Six cases of criminal damage were reported to glass louvers, a fence, the windshield of motor vehicles and a food processor.
In other matters, Superintendent Rudolph Proctor, Head of the Police Task Force, advised the public to secure their construction sites as quantities of building materials were being stolen, resulting in big losses to the builders.
He also stressed that a number of criminal matters on the island were still under active investigation and he appealed to the public to pass on any useful information to the police.
Inspector Paul Sinclair, also of the Task Force, was thankful that there was another quiet week in Anguilla. He reported that he and a number of other police officers were continuing their contacts with gang leaders in various parts of the island. The aim is to appeal to them to turn away from violence and to warn them of police action if they were to resort to violent behaviour. The Inspector is of the view that the police are getting their messages across to them.