Puerto Rico has experienced during the past few months a disturbing string of road tragedies that add to the feeling, which is not alien to almost anyone in our country, that our roads are no man’s land and that speed, alcohol, recklessness and the pusillanimity of the authorities are a risk for all citizens.
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This is, of course, an unacceptable scenario. As long as there are people committing the tremendous irresponsibility of driving under the influence of alcohol, ignoring traffic laws and even organizing clandestine races on public roads, the Police have the duty and obligation to protect society from these serious threats.
The police are often given responsibilities that are not theirs. Fighting criminal violence, for example, is a task that is not only for the police, since there is a very important social component that goes beyond its scope of action. This is not the case, however, with recklessness and danger on the roads; protecting the population from homicidal drivers is a responsibility that cannot be delegated to the police authorities.
Take, for example, the accident that occurred at the stroke of midnight on Sunday in Dorado, which claimed the lives of four young people, all between the ages of 19 and 21, and left several others injured, including a 44-year-old pregnant woman who, fortunately, is recovering satisfactorily. The accident occurred during a clandestine race that was allegedly led by an intoxicated driver and took place in the middle of PR-2, one of the country’s main highways.
What reason can the police give for not even being able to prevent clandestine races from taking place on a major highway, not on a hidden or difficult to access rural road, something that would not happen if a police patrol occasionally passed through the area? It is not known to have been the case in that place, but social networks abound with reports from citizens who say they have called to report clandestine races in their neighborhoods without any authorities coming to verify.
There are reports of clandestine races, for example, on PR-52, which is among the busiest highways in the country.
Clandestine races, plus the abundance of all-terrain vehicles still unfit for highway traffic, especially in rural areas, and alcohol, which have caused so many disasters, are a lethal component that the authorities can no longer ignore. The entire country has seen videos of people on motorcycles and other vehicles violating every provision of the Transit Law, even with state and municipal agents looking on undeterred.
All of Puerto Rico knows that the Police has a resource problem. The newly inaugurated commissioner, Joseph González Falcón, has said he will try to recruit some 5,000 new officers, which poses budgetary and even demographic challenges. The shortage of personnel, however, cannot be used as a pretext for not fulfilling the duty of addressing a situation that can be addressed with a modest patrol effort for which the cooperation of the municipal police can be enlisted.
Ideally, every citizen should be aware of the enormous responsibility involved in driving a motor vehicle and do so responsibly and within the framework of the law. But since we do not live in an ideal world, and the world we inhabit has no shortage of people eager to risk their lives and the lives of others by using our roads as a speeding track, we need a police force aware of its responsibility to society and willing to face this serious problem.
No other response is acceptable.
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This content was translated from Spanish to English using artificial intelligence and was reviewed by an editor before being published.
