The Editor, Sir:

Traffic accidents are eating up a very large portion of our medical budget each year. We have increased the traffic fines to the point where they have now gone through the roof and are still going higher. Most motorists that are given traffic tickets pay the fines without ever thinking that they must try and improve on their driving skills. Some don't even bother to pay the fines.

While, on the other hand, the hospital bills to treat persons involved in traffic accidents keep getting higher. What is our next move to try and reduce the traffic accidents? The answer has been with us for many years and we have refused to use it the way it should be used. The answer is the Advance Driver Training School (ADTC).

Traffic offences

Put it into law that every traffic ticket a police officer writes for dangerous (speeding), reckless and careless driving, the person receiving the ticket will be required to arrange with ADTC, within five working days, how he/she is going to attend classes at ADTC for the next three days (21 hours) for his/her first traffic offence. Or five days (35 hours) for his/her second traffic offence. What about a third traffic offence? Well, since this person obviously takes it for a habit to break the law, let the law show that it has teeth to bite. Suspend or make this person's licence obsolete; depending on the traffic offence that he/she is guilty of committing. It may sound harsh and we are now in the habit of giving a bly ... but how many lives must be lost for this mindset to change?

Some things that may require a person to attend classes at ADTC are: (1) speeding;(2) improper overtaking (at a continuous white line, over a bridge, etc); (3) failing to stop at a stop light or stop sign.

Attitude problems

During the training at ADTC, any person who cannot read and write will be required to attend JAMAL (is JAMAL still around? If not, bring it back into operation) classes for at least six months. From experience, I know that persons who can't read and write usually have a very bad attitude problem. Let us continue to educate our nation and rid the society of illiterate thinking that results in negative actions.

There are those who have never been properly trained to drive a motor vehicle or know anything about the road code. It's apparent to anyone who walks, rides or drives, that these people have developed their own road code as they go along. These self-made road codes are the main causes of most of the accidents we see and hear about on our roads today.

I am, etc.,

WASHINGTON LAWLA

Member of the Society of

Automotive Engineers (SAE)

21 St. Andrew Park

Kingston 10