RICO’S Q (Opinion) During the 24 hour period between Sunday morning and Monday morning, 13 people lost their lives in traffic accidents across the nation.
This growing trend is partially attributed to the lack of traffic officers or ‘tránsitos’, who are needed to patrol, conduct preventive operations and attend to incidents in a timely manner.
The Policia de Tránsito, a division of the Ministerio de Obras Publicas y Transports (MOPT), has seen a decrease in its personnel, with only 650 tránsitos being employed to cover the whole country, 24 hours a day.
The number of police officers has gone down from 1,200 a few years ago, despite attempts to increase the size of the police force which was previously understaffed.
This means that, on average, there are only 217 tránsitos on duty at any given time.
However, the actual number of tránsitos on the roads is lower due to a number of the officials being assigned to administrative duties, taking vacations, on sick leave or being injured on the job.
Thus taking into account (20%) for the foregoing, at any 24-hour period, there are as few as 180 officials on duty.
Furthermore, each official can only work an 8-hour shift, leaving only 60 officials to oversee the many kilometers of roads throughout the country.
This number is also diminished due to a number of officials assigned to the Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO) or San Jose airport, to regulate traffic there.
It is probable that my calculation is off, however, take a moment and think about how many police officers you noticed on your last drive?
This recent fatal outcome emphasizes the need for increased road safety and an effective Policia de Tránsito police force to ensure that drivers, especially motorcyclists, obey traffic regulations.
