Pitts is the pits and it’s deadly

How many times have I heard past and present ministers of Transportation state that the safety of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians on our roads is their No. 1 priority? Well, I would hate to see the other items that are ranked lower than No. 1!

How on earth can anyone in their right mind allow one of the busiest roads in our province to exist in the state that it is in? And I am fed up with hearing that it’s all due to our extreme weather conditions.

A recent letter in The Telegram from a chap from Norway hit the nail on the head. They do not have the same problems that we have, and it’s totally preventable! We do not have to live with potholes. A classic case in point is the fact that Pitts Memorial Drive is a total system failure.

The lack of maintenance and upkeep has gone on for years. If you dare to travel west from New Gower Street and onto this major highway at the bottom of Hamilton Avenue, you take your life in your own hands. There are more potholes, broken pavement, steel bridge anchors and other various pieces of protruding hardware than there is road surface. You would have a job to design a better obstacle course anywhere in the world! It just lies there like a shark, quietly waiting for its next

There are more potholes, broken pavement, steel bridge anchors and other various pieces of protruding hardware than there is road surface.

victim.

As you travel west, all the bridge intersections are in a similar state, with the same broken pavement, potholes, protruding metal extrusions, and so on. The only solution seems to be orange and black markers placed in the holes that must get destroyed daily.

We must have hundreds of government vehicles that travel our highways every day. Are those drivers (employees) not required to report these issues daily? Are they oblivious to the problems, or do they just not care, shrugging their shoulders as they ruin more tires, rims, suspension systems and so on?

I guess that it doesn’t matter as we taxpayers are footing the bill. How many more potentially lethal vehicle rollovers do we have to endure before someone wakes up and sets minimum safety standards for vehicular travel on Newfoundland and Labrador roads? Perhaps we have a case for a class-action lawsuit regarding the lack of safety standards for our roads.

I naively assumed that they already existed, but apparently not! Does anyone feel as incensed enough as I do to do something about it?

I am excited to bring my motorcycle out of hibernation. At the same time, I dread dodging potholes or being thrown off! It’s bad enough with four wheels, but with only two, you are really dicing with death. Surely in 2017, we should expect and demand an efficient and safe transportation system. After all, it’s the only one that we have, and it’s failing miserably.

Dave Rudofsky St. John’s