Robert Pickersgill says he has no interest in apportioning blame for last week's collapse of the Broadgate/Mahoe swing bridge in St. Mary.

His major concern, says Mr. Pickersgill, the Transport and Works Minister, is how to replace the bridge so as to improve access to, and between, the communities it serves.

Mr. Pickersgill is not wrong on the latter point, but neither is he right on the former. Indeed, he is utterly mistaken.

For should the minister not know, or has forgotten the principle, to be unaware of the causes of mistakes is to condemn oneself to repeating them. There are few circumstances in which ignorance is of value.

And in any event, there is that little matter of accountability. The people of the communities of Broadgate and Mahoe and the 14 persons who were injured when the bridge collapsed have a right to know why it happened and who should be held responsible. Indeed, all Jamaica has a stake in the matter and deserves to know.

It is hardly that Mr. Pickersgill is saying that it is none of their business - that the collapse of a bridge and the injuring of people is neither the community's nor the nation's business.

There is a certain context to the collapse of this bridge that adds to the import of the event and gives greater weight to the cause as well as the question of accountability. People have a right to be concerned about the frequency with which bridges collapse in Jamaica.

A few years ago, Jamaican television audiences were served the spectacle of the then Prime Minister P.J. Patterson in a debate with a resident over the efficacy of a Bailey bridge that had been erected at the Yallahs ford in St. Thomas. That bridge soon collapsed. The replacement was soon washed away. It is fewer than two months ago that another bridge being built in St. Mary was washed away by floods. There were problems with its design.

These mishaps raise serious questions about the quality of engineering going into public works in Jamaica and the safety of people who use the infrastructure. The events at Broadgate/Mahoe serve to heighten those concerns.

But there are also other issues specific to this bridge, and others across Jamaica, which need to be answered, including the schedule and quality of maintenance.

For instance, Mr. Bobby Montaque, the chairman of the St. Mary Parish Council, has released letters he reportedly sent to Mr. Pickersgill complaining about the disrepair of the Broadgate/Mahoe bridge, which he said had missing cross-members, frayed and loose tension cables and weak, disintegrating abutments. So, this was disaster not so much waiting to happen, as to be acknowledged.

But then again, such things are perhaps too uncomfortable to be noted, for that is apportioning blame when we should be fixing. And when it happens again, we will fix again. That is what he need to hear from Mr. Pickersgill.