RECKLESS driving has now become the norm for Nadi residents, who have witnessed road accidents nearly on a daily basis.
Speaking at the national budget consultation in Nadi this week, private practitioner Dr Ahmed Shariff highlighted this issue of drivers abusing the law.
“I was talking to my wife the other day on how reckless our drivers have become,” Dr Shariff said.
“The ‘pari’ drivers are rushing, the taxi and mini vans are rushing and they stop wherever they want to.
“Where is the enforcement? The real reason why people take this risk is because there is no enforcement.
“I’m sorry to say but as a country, Fiji is super quick in making legislation, in making rules but we are extremely poor in enforcement.”
He said losing lives on the road would be reduced if harsh penalties were imposed, adding that Government could increase the fines.
“There is a mini-van stopping in the middle of the road to pick a passenger and stopping cars behind them, and there can be a police vehicle just passing by.
“A person jaywalking where they should not be crossing at high traffic places and a police officer would just be standing there.
“There is a law against jaywalking but who enforces it?
“I’m really requesting as a citizen and as a business owner, I think we need to enhance and improve our enforcement and our policing.
“So please, give a little more to the police in this budget.”
In response, Finance Minister Esrom Immanuel said the Fiji Revenue and Customs Service, and Land Transport Authority were the two agencies ensuring that regulations needed to be enforced.
“But in terms of police, for the past four years we have increased their budget substantively,” Mr Immanuel said.
“There is some structural issue within the police system, and that needs to be relooked into.
“And Government is concerned, and now we have brought in the military to work with the police in the drug operations and trafficking in place, to try and curb those issues.”
