We shall never tire of reminding Batswana how priceless their lives are. But this message, superfluous as it may seem given the inherent reflection of godliness in humanity, seems to go unheeded. For year in year out, at the time of major public holidays, such as the imminent Easter, many lives are lost, mainly on our roads.

A time like this has come to be synonymous with preventable fatalities, mainly on our roads partly due to our excessive reliance on road transport. The butchery has happened even as there was an alternative of the railroad passenger service of Botswana Railways (BR), especially for people with destinations along or in the vicinage of the country's eastern corridor.

But the unhappy news of the termination of BR's passenger service is a far cry from the glad tidings of the triumph of the Messiah over death the Christian world is about to commemorate; for the absence of the blue coaches is likely to result in the worst-ever clogging of the roads and - God forbid it! - unparalleled mayhem and bedlam. We doubt that the men and women who have taken this sorrowful decision at BR want to carry the burden of making the worst out of a bad situation on their consciences.

Even so, because travelling during public holidays is almost a given, we wish to appeal to motorists and their passengers to simply drive with due care. It is a time-tested road safety precaution that hardly betrays those who practise it. Add inspection of the motor vehicle before the journey to ensure it is roadworthy, sobriety while on the journey, co-operation with law-enforcement officers, regular rest and extension of courtesy to fellow motorists, and we shall arrive alive!

Failure to adhere to these safety measures attracts high penalties not only in terms of the recently amended traffic law but also insufferable pain at the loss or maiming of oneself and/or loved ones. The drill of the body count by the traffic department of the Botswana Police Service (BPS) after every public holiday is preventable, ba-ga-etsho. As are the other orgies that have come to be associated with public holidays in our treasured country - the so-called crimes of passion, the suicides, the bloodcurdling murders, the rapes of even puny girls, the burglaries, the homicidal rages at stokvels, shebeens and pubs, and all the unspeakable horrors that we perpetrate as though in the grip of mass hysteria.

We simply cannot carry on like this.

But as we ask people to co-operate with law-enforcement officers, we ask the same of them and to treat people with dignity. It is overbearing of them to think their brief includes breaking up joyous family gatherings in people's homes, for instance. Or throwing people in the stinker where a simple warning might have done.

May the abiding memory of the Messiah and other manifestations of God guide us this Easter and forever more. Amen.