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As the deaths and injuries from traffic "accidents" mount up we are hearing more strident calls from spokesmen for the government, Government House and the Police for more personal responsibility.

Instead of pointing fingers at each other they have resorted to collectively blaming irresponsible individuals. In essence they are

all saying" There's nothing more we can do, it's up to the individuals to prevent these disasters on our roads."

The rants about individual responsibility ring hollow. They may make for good soundbites, and to assuage due guilt, but the bottom line is that these institutions are shirking their responsibilities and trying to palm off the blame to nebulous, nameless individuals. It's a safe strategy, if people are duped by it. These institutions point

fingers at no one in particular, then claim they are fulfilling their duty - any further accidents are now not their fault. Hogwash!

It wasn't individuals who changed the laws to allow larger cars - cars too big for the regular parking spaces, too big for many of our roads, and too capable of unsafe speeds. It wasn't individuals who changed the laws to allow more powerful motorbikes - bikes capable of speeds three or more times higher than the legal limit and far faster

than is safe on all but a few of our roads.

It wasn't individuals who allowed overweight vehicles on our roads which tear up the road surface, making travel more dangerous at almost any speed. It wasn't individuals who delayed road repaving until election time. It wasn't individuals who decided not to enforce the laws governing the noise levels of vehicle exhaust or stereo systems, thus tacitly encouraging a scofflaw attitude. It wasn't

individuals who quit the practice of publishing speeding cases and fines, thus removing an important feedback loop for preventing speeding.

Shift in attitudes

It wasn't individuals who neglected to adjust the size of the police service to match the growth in population and population density, the growth in vehicle size and numbers, the shift in attitudes toward policing in general. It wasn't individuals who through either

inadequate recruitment or inadequate funding kept the police below strength. And it wasn't individuals whose on-again-off-again

deployment of police traffic details let the genie of too fast and too reckless riding/driving habits out of the bottle.

Just think how we treat other dangerous weapons. We don't put sharpened machetes in the hands of youngsters or even youthful adults, and send them onto the streets. To the contrary, we have special laws to discourage the use of "bladed articles". Of course, individual responsibility plays an important part but we don't rely on individual responsibility to prevent violence or other crime.

Whether in the world of business (length of the work day and work week), the world of sports (begin time, end time, rules, referees), schools, home, church, everywhere - we don't depend on or belabour or blame individual responsibility for correct conduct. We have institutional rules and mechanisms that keep people in line. When

those institutional mechanisms fail or are mis- or under-applied, rule-breaking becomes the norm.

It's alright to call for individual responsibility, but that call cannot be a substitute for institutional responsibility.  Government

House, the Cabinet Office and the police leadership must wean themselves from pointing fingers, at each other or some non-specific scapegoat.

Do your job and, considering the circumstance, go an extra mile. Make the enforcement so effective and the consequences so painful that everyone will toe the line. You are paid well. Earn it!

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