Jackass sey de worl' no level. Jackass sey wen careless driva kill off people dem charge dem fe manslaughta, but wen pothole kill off people nobody no get charge.

Jackass read yet another sad road fatality tale in yesterday's paper, this one about two brothers who were in an accident in St Elizabeth. One, a 17 year-old student of Munro College, did not make it, while the other and two more persons were injured.

Cause of accident

What struck Jackass, though, apart from how sad the whole situation is, is that the residents of the area where the accident occurred immediately put the accident down to two potholes in the road. (Of course, the police might have something else to say when they have concluded their investigations.)

These potholes are smack in the middle of the road and Jackass is sure that they did not appear there overnight.

Now, when a driver is involved in a fatal accident, they are slapped with a charge of manslaughter (if they are not dead, naturally) and, chances are, spend a night or two in the jailhouse. But when a pothole causes the accident, who is there to charge?

The world is not level at all, because how come a driver is held responsible for being careless when he or she causes a fatal accident, while the person who is responsible for maintaining the road is not held accountable when they neglect their duties, resulting in a deadly crash?

No man, this is not right. It is not some little cracks in the road that cause major accidents. It is some craters as deep as Bill Gates' pockets and as wide as Curtley Ambrose's smile. But, they did not start life as monsters. At first they were some little cracks in the tarmac and then they grew and grew.

Growing problem

So Jackass wants to know, where were the persons responsible for fixing the road when the potholes were in their growing stages, before they got out of hand and reached the stage where they could swallow a small car and were thinking seriously about taking in a truck? Where were the people responsible for fixing the road when a small job was required to deal with the problem, rather than a major job that required blocking off one lane of the road?

Complacent

Where were they when the pothole was causing cars to swerve to avoid them, then bending car rims, then bursting tyres, then damaging front ends, then causing minor accidents, then major ones, then fatalities? Were they looking at it, smiling and saying proudly 'Wow, I knew it from it was a wee crack and look at it now'!

No man! Jackass says somebody has to be held accountable for these potholes which are maiming and killing people on the road. Of course people drive too fast and carelessly. But let us control the things we can control. Let us deliver a decent road surface for people to drive on (and don't tell Jackass that the potholes help to keep people from speeding, like they are some upside down sleeping policemen).

If it were up to Jackass, he would charge the people responsible for fixing specific strips of road which get out of hand with potholes with something like 'Endangering the Motoring Public' or 'Pothole Grooming'.

Jackass sey de worl' no level. Jackass sey im really sarry fe people dem whe get mash up eena de pathole crash.

Now, when a driver is involved in a fatal accident, they are slapped with a charge of manslaughter (if they are not dead, naturally) and, chances are, spend a night or two in the jailhouse. But when a pothole causes the accident, who is there to charge?