The photo in today’s newspaper showing a broken guardrail at Raoul Illidge Sports Complex (RISC) is indeed symptomatic of St. Maarten’s apparent infrastructural neglect. Part of the problem are irresponsible motorists who crash into street furniture but don’t pay for the damage or have their insurance cover it.
This puts government and, for example, also Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) in a position to have to go after culprits. While both have stated doing so, if the often single-party related accident was not reported or recorded by surveillance cameras, the chance of success is obviously small.
Outgoing Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI Egbert Doran when announcing road projects last year was asked specifically about guardrails. He said they are expensive and therefore usually repaired as much as possible, but some considered unfixable would be renewed, along with broken directional signs, etc.
This matter allows no further delay, because – apart from looking sloppy – dysfunctional guardrails are a serious traffic hazard, not in the least because they can no longer properly do what they are supposed to. Preventing the same vehicle-inflicted damage from continuing to happen, however, is a different story.
Curaçao experimented with guardrails at Juliana Bridge made from a more flexible rubber-like material which has a bouncing effect when hit by cars and it might be worthwhile to find out how this went. Other than that, road users should become more aware that the street and accompanying structures belong to everyone, so they must be treated as such.
