Our entire nation remains horrified by the December 19 tragedy that claimed 14 lives on an unsafe roadway at Dam Bridge in Portland. My sincere condolences go out to their families, relatives and friends. I can't begin to imagine what they must be going through - especially over this usually happy season.

No one lives forever and the vast majority of us will suffer physically and emotionally before our passing; however, many of our problems are man-made and therefore avoidable. This recent disaster is a case in point. I have always thought that the age-old practice of transporting mounds of produce along with people in the back of market trucks is a very dangerous one. When the seatbelt laws were finally enacted, I expected that I'd seen the last of people riding around in the back of pickup trucks and larger vehicles designed to transport goods and (perhaps) livestock.

We have a nasty habit of enforcing the laws haphazardly and compromising whenever we feel it appropriate. One Sunday morning I was stopped in the middle of Hagley Park Road by a lone policeman on a parked motorbike. He swaggered over, glowered at me and then waved me on as he announced, "Oh, mi did tink seh yuh naah wear yuh seatbelt, all right, gwaan". Yet, pickups with passengers sitting in the back went by undisturbed.

Yuletide season

Kingston and St Andrew Mayor Desmond McKenzie wished that no more lives would be lost during the Yuletide season, but I wish that the powers that be would stop turning a blind eye to the obvious dangers of poor people travelling with their goods in the back of commercial vehicles.

If the law were enforced, no one would be in the cargo section of that ill-fated truck. As far as I understand, those in the cab (the only part of the vehicle designed to carry the driver and passengers) survived. Other appropriate means of transport (passenger vehicles) should be used by people to get to the market in order to sell their goods.

This same lack of proper oversight (investigation, monitoring and intervention) by people and organisations entrusted and empowered to do so is responsible for everything from the ongoing social conditions that spawn alternative governments and alternative morals in our inner cities that lead to the high level of criminality across the island to worldwide financial crisis.

Overindulgence

Administrative ineptitude led to 'free market' overindulgence and our financial meltdown back in the 1990s. And, even in the Mecca of capitalism - America - greedy lending institutions encouraged and facilitated unserviceable loans that ended up becoming 'toxic'. This sent economies worldwide spiralling into deep and scary recession. The shock waves of poor oversight and inefficient regulation are having and will continue to have devastating effects across the entire globe. We must hold public servants accountable for failing to safeguard our (physical, financial and emotional) well-being.

As individual citizens, each with a vested interest in the positive development of our country, we must speak up and demand that our elected representatives find a way to help the less fortunate. The Portland tragedy is even more troubling to me because it's obvious that an accident of such tremendous proportions would never occur if those market people were not poor. This catastrophe only serves to diminish the value of their lives.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing about all that has happened is that nothing will change. Large trucks, heavily laden with market produce and people will continue making their way to markets across the island.

Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice. Feedback may be sent to garthrattray@gmail.com or columns@gleanerjm.com.