Dear Editor,
In recent years, a huge number of road users have lost their lives needlessly in Guyana, and the rate keeps increasing. According to the Home Affairs Ministry, as at February 2023, fatalities on Guyana’s roadways have increased by 100 per cent this year, in comparison to the same period last year. It was also found that road fatalities occur mainly on Saturdays and Sundays, between 6 pm and 12 midnight.
Nothing much has been achieved since the National Assembly passed the Motor Vehicle and Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill on November 7, 2022, to promote and enforce safe driving while imposing much higher penalties for serious infractions. Such piecemeal programmes will never work, because about a quarter of drivers did not obtain their licences through the regular process. The fact that the National Road Safety Council’s financial resources have been boosted from $3 million to more than $11 million, to aid in the sensitization and reduction of road accidents, indicates a scenario of platitudes rather than progress.
Some recent fatalities are horrific: A BK Security Inc Manager was on Monday (Aug 14) crushed to death after the vehicle he was driving crashed into a utility pole at Le Ressouvenir, East Coast Demerara (ECD).
A three-vehicle accident along the Montrose Public Road, East Coast Demerara on Sunday night has claimed the lives of two 19-year-old men.
Six persons escaped with minor injuries on Sunday night after a pick-up toppled several times along the St. Cuthbert’s Mission Access Trail.
Three children were on Sunday (Aug 13) killed in a boat accident in the vicinity of Masakenari Village, Region Nine)
A 27-year-old man is presently battling for his life after he was struck down, during the afternoon hours last Wednesday, by a speeding car driven by a firefighter. Two security guards were detained by Police at Mabaruma on Saturday after one of the men crashed a Regional Democratic Council (RDC) pick-up into a sports utility vehicle (SUV) which belongs to Opposition Member of Parliament Ronald Cox.
Four persons are dead following a two-vehicle crash at Craig, East Bank Demerara (EBD) on Monday night.
Four persons, two men and two women, were on Monday morning killed after the minibus they were in collided with a truck on the Greenwich Park Public Road, East Bank Essequibo (EBE).
As the country transforms into a high-tech vehicle state, the laws governing traffic infractions are, to say in modest terms, archaic and unfit, and embrace a Third World system of lopsidedness and holey enforcement regulations.
Successive regimes, with their hebetude-like approach to administration, have failed miserably to institute safeguards to curb the horrific numbers of road accidents that produce lifelong disfigurement and fatalities that are perpetrated on a hapless, hopeless populace at the receiving end of the noveau riche with their ultra-modern mega-million vehicles but ultra-clumsy driving habits.
The huge influx of vehicles over the past decade carries terrible downstream effects in a country where egotistical, maniacal driving takes centre stage against the backdrop of a highly underpaid Police Force, notwithstanding constant allegations of persons obtaining licences under questionable and clandestine Police conduct.
The recent tragedy on the Craig, East Bank Demerara road, where 5 persons lost their lives in an accident involving a truck driver, highlights that no one should drive a commercial vehicle unless that person possesses 5 years minimum driving experience.
The courts have failed miserably in giving accident victims compensation and satisfaction, while allowing these drivers – who actually commit murder, vehicular manslaughter – to leave the courts free and once again enter the killing fields of Guyana’s roadways.
Each year, a new crop of drivers gets behind the wheel. The most logical evaluation simply indicates that the excitement to drive precipitates careless road usage, while a huge preponderance of minibuses are driven by the younger strata of society.
I have long advocated, even corresponding with 2 former Home Affairs Ministers, the need for multi-level categories of licence. Simply, one should not drive a commercial passenger vehicle without the necessary first aid training and HAZMAT testing.
The Guyana Police Force has said the leading causes of traffic mishaps in the country are speeding and driving while under the influence of alcohol. Other major causes are: driving while distracted by use of a cellphone; pedestrian inattentiveness; and failure to heed traffic signs and warnings. Road repairs, a seemingly perpetual dilemma, do not help either. Poor lighting; absence of road markings; tinting; distractive loud music; encroachment by beer & food sheds, piles of sand, rice drying etc, all compound the dangers of both drivers and pedestrians.
Construction materials, especially sand and brick, should never block any roadway; instead, such materials ought to be transported in containers like polypropylene or jute bags (like rice) with fluorescent markings.
By implementing heavy fines with a points’ system for violations and strict licence suspensions, drivers would become more conscious of their responsibilities. Speed cameras, enforcement of speed zones, and more breathalyzer testing would greatly reduce accidents. Improved road conditions, like better lighting, more signs, no hand-held cellphone usage etc, would ensure safer conditions and alleviate the woes of meandering through the streets.
It is truly mind-boggling to see officials driving Prado and Mercedes vehicles yet cannot comprehend the urgency of fixing a simple pot hole. It is rather confusing that the Ministry of Works continues to receive most of the subventions allocated by Parliament for improved infrastructure, yet accidents occur with increasing frequency!
Road etiquette is atrocious in the country, especially in regard to overtaking. The driver being overtaken does not ‘tuck in’ or slow down to allow this manoeuvre, but instead many increase his/her speed, resulting in serious accidents.
Finally, do not ever believe that speeding minibuses facilitate those late for work. Guyanese are not known to act with any form of alacrity and promptness in any sphere of activity (except perhaps a date or meeting at the rum shop).
Sadly, in the general lexicon of things, it seems that obtaining a licence to drive implies license to kill. It is the new pandemic for One Guyana.
Sincerely,
Leyland Chitlall
Roopnaraine
