DANGEROUS DRIVING, THE LAW, AND THE PRESIDENT

Of the five worst examples of dangerous driving I have ever seen, two were in Italy. The first was on a mountain road near the Brenner pass into Austria in the early 80s. I was heading to a ski camp in Antholz. A fiat overtook me on a sharp blind corner going far too fast. About 5 km later I was not at all surprised to see the car in a snowy field where the driver had steered it off the road rather than crash into an oncoming lorry. The driver was standing by the car clearly shaken but unhurt. He was lucky.

The second incident was on the Bologna - Padova motorway when I was coming back from an evening at the Jazz club in Bologna. (totally sober I might add) I drove into the inevitable thick mist that every autumn and winter covers the flat plain 30km either side of the river Po. The visibility was about 15m so I slowed down and drove very very carefully. Suddenly a container lorry passed me in the outside lane driving at least 100km an hour. It was going so fast the trailer was swaying dangerously behind it and it forced me to swerve hard onto the hard shoulder. I was seriously shaken and almost missed the Ferarra turnoff a few minutes later. I was grateful to get home alive that night.

The other five dangerous examples have all been in Riga and concern the police escort drivers. At least two of these have been with the President and a third I was not sure because they were going so fast it was impossible to see who the cars were carrying. I have watched cars swerve away out of their lanes to escape the aggressive attack, and people jump back onto the pavement in fear. Sooner or later these police will kill someone who cannot get across a crossing fast enough when they jump the red lights. It is inevitable. It will be a mother with pram or someone disabled who simply cannot move away.

There are many facets to this. The first is that dangerous driving is against the law and these police should be prosecuted like anyone else. The second is that they appear to believe that breaking the law is alright for them but not for others. Why do the traffic police not stop and arrest them for example? Are they given orders by senior police not to do so. If so the senior police should resign and go and farm somewhere. They are not doing their job.

The third thing is that by convention, the senior person in a car or in a cavalcade is the person responsible for the way that the cars are driven. This places the responsibility firmly upon the head of the President. Why does he allow this dangerous practice day after day? We are not in Belgrade or any high risk security area. If there is a death then who will be guilty of manslaughter, the driver or the President? Cars when driven aggressively are a weapon and should be considered as such by law.

John Adams, the second president of the United States was fond of saying that he wanted a country that was ruled by law and not by men. We need that too in Latvia. This means that Presidents and police should also abide by the law. If they do not, then what point is there having any law at all?