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Protecting the man of speed, Mr Usain Bolt
Friday, May 01, 2009
We have a very bad habit in this country of converting plain and simple principles into spectacles, depending on the players involved.
Take Wednesday's motor vehicle mishap along the Vineyard toll section of Highway 2000 involving triple Olympic gold medallist, Mr Usain Bolt and his two female companions, Misses Latoya Taylor and Venecia Crew.
Mercifully they all escaped serious injury. And for that we are indeed thankful.
For it would have been altogether too painful to see such promising and phenomenal careers go down the tube for no good reason.
We would mourn all three were the Grim Reaper to have claimed them. However, there is no doubt the anguish of the nation would have more than tripled because Mr Bolt is such a national treasure who is clearly loved by Jamaicans everywhere.
That is why we want him to hear this:
We are not about to challenge the assertion by Sergeant David Sheriff of the Old Harbour police that he had no indication that Mr Bolt was speeding in his BMW M3 Coupe. This can easily be settled by experienced investigators.
However, we feel constrained to point out that even if Mr Bolt had not been breaking the speed limit, it would appear from the report in yesterday's edition of this newspaper that on the face of it, he was going too fast in the circumstances.
According to the news story, both front tyres of his car were punctured and the left-front wheel was almost torn off. The front windscreen was shattered while the back windscreen was totally dislodged. There were tyre marks too, the report says, for about 50 metres before the car came off the road, overturned and landed in a ditch.
If these observations are to be believed, it seems rather incredible that a police officer - a sergeant no less - should conclude that there was no evidence that speed played a role in the mishap.
Every motorist should be aware of the need to travel with less speed than is normally appropriate when driving under hazardous conditions, such as on wet roads. For every car, no matter how sturdy, no matter how safe, is vulnerable to skidding.
However, the chances of surviving the skid are directly proportionate to the rate at which the vehicle is travelling. So, for example, if the maximum speed limit on the toll road is 110 km per hour, it should not be interpreted as a signal to travel at that speed even when common sense and adverse road conditions dictate otherwise.
This is what young Mr Bolt, and indeed all of us, need to be cognisant of whenever we get behind the wheel. We need to realise that we are not immortal, no matter how famous and talented we are.
We are, as Shakespeare's infamous Shylock pointed out so many years ago, but humans, regardless of race, class or creed.
If we are pricked, tickled, poisoned or wronged, we bleed, laugh, die and retaliate.
And yes, there is a high probability that if we drive too fast on a wet road, we just might turn over, as Mr Bolt did.
Friday, May 01, 2009
We have a very bad habit in this country of converting plain and simple principles into spectacles, depending on the players involved.
Take Wednesday's motor vehicle mishap along the Vineyard toll section of Highway 2000 involving triple Olympic gold medallist, Mr Usain Bolt and his two female companions, Misses Latoya Taylor and Venecia Crew.
Mercifully they all escaped serious injury. And for that we are indeed thankful.
For it would have been altogether too painful to see such promising and phenomenal careers go down the tube for no good reason.
We would mourn all three were the Grim Reaper to have claimed them. However, there is no doubt the anguish of the nation would have more than tripled because Mr Bolt is such a national treasure who is clearly loved by Jamaicans everywhere.
That is why we want him to hear this:
We are not about to challenge the assertion by Sergeant David Sheriff of the Old Harbour police that he had no indication that Mr Bolt was speeding in his BMW M3 Coupe. This can easily be settled by experienced investigators.
However, we feel constrained to point out that even if Mr Bolt had not been breaking the speed limit, it would appear from the report in yesterday's edition of this newspaper that on the face of it, he was going too fast in the circumstances.
According to the news story, both front tyres of his car were punctured and the left-front wheel was almost torn off. The front windscreen was shattered while the back windscreen was totally dislodged. There were tyre marks too, the report says, for about 50 metres before the car came off the road, overturned and landed in a ditch.
If these observations are to be believed, it seems rather incredible that a police officer - a sergeant no less - should conclude that there was no evidence that speed played a role in the mishap.
Every motorist should be aware of the need to travel with less speed than is normally appropriate when driving under hazardous conditions, such as on wet roads. For every car, no matter how sturdy, no matter how safe, is vulnerable to skidding.
However, the chances of surviving the skid are directly proportionate to the rate at which the vehicle is travelling. So, for example, if the maximum speed limit on the toll road is 110 km per hour, it should not be interpreted as a signal to travel at that speed even when common sense and adverse road conditions dictate otherwise.
This is what young Mr Bolt, and indeed all of us, need to be cognisant of whenever we get behind the wheel. We need to realise that we are not immortal, no matter how famous and talented we are.
We are, as Shakespeare's infamous Shylock pointed out so many years ago, but humans, regardless of race, class or creed.
If we are pricked, tickled, poisoned or wronged, we bleed, laugh, die and retaliate.
And yes, there is a high probability that if we drive too fast on a wet road, we just might turn over, as Mr Bolt did.
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