We must not police people spirit – PM

The minivan crash over the weekend, which involved several young persons headed to a picnic, must not be used as a reason to police the spirit of persons.

“What we have to police is the infractions of the law,” said Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves on Monday, adding: “Let people enjoy themselves, let people have their freedoms and so on, but, they themselves have to be responsible while enjoying their lives and their freedoms.”

Twelve persons were injured last Saturday when a minivan crashed at Diamond.

“Scrape”, H-6927, ran off the Diamond public road and struck a lamppost at around 2:30 p.m.

The bus, driven by its owner, Sergio John of Rose Hall, was headed to Nature Valley, South Rivers, for the popular, annual “Unsolved Mysteries Road Trip-Miami Lifestyle Edition” which is organized by promoter Lemore Garth Ryan.   

Commenting on the crash on Monday, the Prime Minister said there is a lot of discussion about young people enjoying themselves and he does not want his comments to dampen the spirit of young people who want to traverse SVG and have fun.

“You can enjoy yourself without urging recklessness,” said Gonsalves, who encouraged minibus drivers not to get carried away when they are being egged on by young people.

He said that passengers can keep whatever noise they want, but drivers must be able to ignore this.

Gonsalves said he was told that on Saturday that most of the drivers associated with the event conducted themselves well and sensibly, but there was a narrow window where some did not do as well.

“I hope more people traverse the whole country and enjoy themselves and spend the money all over on internal tourism… we must not use this (Saturday’s crash) to police people spirit.”