Motorist urged to consider road safety

THE National Road Safety Council wants to see an improvement in the behaviour of motorists and road users in Lae.
Council executive director Nelson Terema made the commitment when closing the two special joint operations in Lae involving the Land Transport Board, Motor Vehicle Insurance Ltd, traffic registry and police.
The two-week collaboration involved road safety awareness around the city, enforcement and two days of an accident data processing workshop.
“Lae city should be made safer, we have to change Lae city for residents to enjoy, our efforts and contribution will make a lot of difference,” Terema said when closing the joint operations at the Lae Value Inn on Tuesday.
He admitted there were many vehicles driven around the city that weren’t roadworthy but urged the different partners to make use of whatever resources they had.
His call for consistency in such joint operations was echoed by representatives from the different agencies that had been working with the council since its office opened in the city five years ago.
Provincial police commander David Wa­rap admitted that lack of resources and manpower were hindering such joint operations but hailed the introduction of electronic data processing technologies.
“Statistics are important to keep track of challenges, from now on we want reports coming in from officers,” Warap said.
He made a special appeal to traffic officers not to take bribes from motorists and vehicle owners.
Insp Joe Joseph, the director of police traffic in Lae pointed out that the main causes of accidents were defective vehicle, road design flaws, bad driver and bad weather.