Ministry warns of traffic changes, increased risks during festivities

The Min­istry of Trans­port and Civ­il Avi­a­tion is urg­ing the pub­lic to treat road safe­ty as a per­son­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ty this Car­ni­val sea­son, warn­ing that a sin­gle lapse in judge­ment could have ir­re­versible con­se­quences.

In a me­dia re­lease is­sued yes­ter­day, the min­istry, head­ed by Min­is­ter Eli Za­k­our, re­mind­ed road users that the fes­tive at­mos­phere must not over­shad­ow the need for vig­i­lance and cau­tion on the na­tion’s roads.

“Car­ni­val ac­tiv­i­ty in­creas­es traf­fic vol­umes, pedes­tri­an move­ments, and late-night trav­el. Every trip should be made with safe­ty in mind,” the min­istry stat­ed.

With thou­sands of mas­quer­aders, spec­ta­tors and mo­torists ex­pect­ed to tra­verse event routes and sur­round­ing com­mu­ni­ties, the min­istry called on mo­torists, pedes­tri­ans, pas­sen­gers and band mem­bers alike to make road safe­ty a non-ne­go­tiable pri­or­i­ty through­out the Car­ni­val pe­ri­od.

Spe­cial cau­tion was di­rect­ed at mas­quer­aders, par­tic­u­lar­ly those par­tic­i­pat­ing in pa­rades ac­com­pa­nied by mu­sic trucks and sup­port ve­hi­cles. The min­istry warned that these large, heavy-du­ty units have re­strict­ed vis­i­bil­i­ty and re­quire ad­e­quate op­er­at­ing space.

“Re­main aware of your sur­round­ings at all times, par­tic­u­lar­ly in ar­eas where ve­hi­cles are op­er­at­ing. Co­op­er­ate ful­ly with se­cu­ri­ty per­son­nel and ad­here to all safe­ty di­rec­tives,” the re­lease ad­vised.

The min­istry al­so re­mind­ed mo­torists to an­tic­i­pate tem­po­rary dis­rup­tions to nor­mal traf­fic pat­terns. These may in­clude di­ver­sions, lane clo­sures and one-way traf­fic move­ments in and around event routes and venues.

Dri­vers were urged to obey all traf­fic signs, cones, bar­ri­ers and in­struc­tions from au­tho­rised of­fi­cers. The min­istry fur­ther cau­tioned that flash­ing traf­fic sig­nals should be treat­ed with care and that mo­torists must ad­here to es­tab­lished right-of-way rules.

“Re­duce speed on ap­proach to in­ter­sec­tions, cross­ings and con­gest­ed ar­eas, and be pre­pared to stop,” the state­ment read.

Par­tic­u­lar con­cern was ex­pressed about ar­eas where phys­i­cal bar­ri­ers may be re­moved or repo­si­tioned to fa­cil­i­tate Car­ni­val op­er­a­tions. In such zones, the risk of con­fu­sion and un­ex­pect­ed ve­hi­cle move­ments in­creas­es.

Mo­torists were ad­vised to main­tain prop­er lane po­si­tion­ing, avoid sud­den lane changes, in­crease fol­low­ing dis­tances and prac­tise de­fen­sive dri­ving at all times.

Pedes­tri­ans, too, were re­mind­ed that height­ened foot traf­fic, crowd spillover and re­duced night­time vis­i­bil­i­ty can el­e­vate the risk of ac­ci­dents.

The min­istry urged pedes­tri­ans to use marked cross­ings, pedes­tri­an sig­nals and walkovers where avail­able, and to cross on­ly when it is safe to do so. Mak­ing eye con­tact with dri­vers be­fore step­ping on­to the road­way and avoid­ing cross­ing be­tween parked ve­hi­cles were al­so em­pha­sised as es­sen­tial safe­ty prac­tices.

As the coun­try pre­pares for the peak of Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions, the min­istry stressed that safe­ty must re­main para­mount, even amid rev­el­ry.

“Every road user has a role to play,” the re­lease con­clud­ed, un­der­scor­ing that col­lec­tive vig­i­lance and re­spon­si­ble be­hav­iour are key to en­sur­ing a safe and en­joy­able Car­ni­val sea­son for all.