Barbados Today

Seventy five-year-old Nattalie Mayers has been dubbed this island’s safest driver, having not been involved in a road accident in her almost 50 years of driving.

The Barbados Road Safety Association (BRSA) Friday recognized the St George resident for this accomplishment during a short awards ceremony at its Rendezvous, Christ Church office.

Readily admitting she “don’t drive slow”, Mayers attributed her half century of accident-free driving to a prayer whenever she enters her vehicle and the fact that she is a cautious driver.

“I don’t want to be on the side of the road waiting for the police, wasting time and I don’t have money to get another car, so I drive with caution,” she said, pointing out that she was always quick to apologize to other road users and move on even if she was right, so as to avoid confrontation.

Mayers was chosen as the island’s safest driver after the BRSA embarked on an accident-free campaign to find a citizen who has been driving the longest without ever hitting another vehicle or individual or being hit by someone else while on the road.

Asked if she could change a car tyre, a cheerful Mayers simply responded “of course”, explaining that it was the first thing her husband had taught her when she got her driver’s licence in February 1967.

She believed a lot of vehicular accidents occurred because of selfish drivers.

“I find that with accidents right away selfishness is an element,” she said, adding that too many drivers did not want to give way or wanted to speed.

During the ceremony a number of other individuals were given special awards.

President of the BRSA Sharmane Roland-Bowen reported that there were 17 vehicular accidents on the Crash Free Friday campaign held at the end of last month, down from an average of 30 on Fridays during the month of November.

The campaign, which formed part of Road Safety Month, was designed to encourage pedestrians and motorists to make an extra effort to be safe on that day.

“We did pick the last Friday, which [was] the 25th, which would have been the most challenging Friday because at that time there were a number of persons in Barbados for the independence activities. So the amount of traffic on the road would have been overwhelming. We did not want something easy we wanted a challenge so we picked that Friday for a purpose,” said Roland-Bowen.