Beware the holiday curse

ABOUT two decades ago, when the pioneer secondary schools were graduating their first Grade 12 students, the joyous crowd at one such ceremony at a school in Madang was gripped by the heartbreaking news that the
top female student had just died on the way to receive her certificate.
Even more tragic was that she and her entire family – parents and two siblings – perished in a road accident.
Many other families or schools and colleges have similar stories to tell of the loss of young people for whom adult life would have just begun but snuffed out in an instant.
There are stories of students dying in road accidents while travelling home for holidays or while driving around in euphoria after graduating.
While we all look forward to the approaching holiday and school graduations, the number of road accidents happening around this period in past years should also provide a forewarning.
Police, the Road Safety Council and a compilation of media reports can all affirm this distressing
trend.
The launching of the week-long road safety campaign headed by major fuel distributor Puma Energy comes an appropriate time of the year.
School will be out and in a matter of weeks, Christmas and the festive season will be upon us.
Efforts by Puma Energy, the Department of Transport and Infrastructure and the Road Safety Authority to reach to schools with awareness of road safety must be embraced and backed by all concerned.
And wherever possible, the safety messages delivered throughout this week of awareness should be spread further.
Education is an important part of raising standards in safety in the long run.
Children need to grow up being road safety conscious so they can contribute to reducing road accidents in the country, as pointed by the chief executive officer of the Road Safety Authority Nelson Terema.
As part of the campaign Puma Energy is supporting the Road Safety Authority with their awareness in schools and among PMV drivers especially.
The rationale for introducing road safety to schools, according to Road Safety Authority, is so children are taught about safety and grow up being safety-conscious.
Teaching students is essentially to help them to avoid being hit by or running into a moving vehicle or getting into risky situations.
Part of the awareness should include educating them to use facilities like overhead bridge are placed there for very good reason – to enhance security.
And they ought to be used at all times to cross busy roads.
Pedestrians still take the risk of being run over when they cross
the traffic right under overhead bridges.
It may be convenient to simply cross rather than climb up a steep ramp but such laziness or foolhardiness can only result in accidents one day.
The road safety awareness, although targeted at schools, should be taken to every sector of the community.
As much as police, the Road Traffic Authority and other concerned parties such as private companies, would want to help reduce accident fatalities, much of the responsibility lies with individual drivers – of family cars, PMVs, freight trucks or other vehicles on public roads.
There are many causes of road accidents – driver fatigue, faulty vehicles, poor road conditions or simple carelessness.
But there is no denying that the most common cause of road accidents has been drunk driving.
Whether it is on Port Moresby city road or on a dirt road somewhere else, there has been
way too many casualties of accidents caused by this reckless behaviour.
There are other reckless drivers who do not need to drink to race down the main roads and streets.
These idiots think they are the kings of the road and drive at high speed, even through the red lights  and pedestrian crossings.
PMV drivers are among the main culprits, despite numerous road blocks and awareness campaigns by police and road transport authorities.
As the festive period approaches authorities fear a repeat of the past when careless drivers get behind the wheel when they are drunk.
While authorities would be out doing their jobs to prevent road accidents in the coming holiday period the public at large should also be safety-conscious.