More strategic road blocks, stiffer penalties touted

– along with zero tolerance for ‘drinking and driving’

By Jarryl Bryan

With the continuing carnage being witnessed on the roadways due to reckless driving, the Guyana National Road Safety Council (GNRC) has plans to re-launch its White Knight campaign.

The White Knight campaign is a collaborative effort of the GNRSC and the Guyana Police Force. The aim of the campaign is to team education awareness with enforcement during strategic roadblocks across the country.

According to GNRC Coordinator, Ramona Doorgen, there are plans to reintroduce the campaign in June. In a recent interview with this publication, she intimated that the campaign would last until December 2017.

“It’s going to be the second White Knight campaign. We did it in November (2016), when we measured it. For 2015 we had 15 deaths in November and the White Knight campaign and all the other campaigns the Police did compliment the campaign and this gave us a reduction in November 2016. So we see that it’s working and we want to run it again, from June to December. We’re going to have the media involved; we’re going to have civilians involved, we’re going to have prominent persons involved, throughout the regions,” Doorgen said.

She assured that the campaign would be advertised beforehand, while she noted that contact numbers, the locations of the campaign’s principal points and road blocks, would be released by Monday, May 29.

Doorgen noted that one aim of the campaign is to reduce the number of persons drinking and driving on the roadway. Meanwhile, it was emphasised by the coordinator that passengers have their lives in their hands and must therefore contribute to preventing the reckless use of the road.

Doorgen stressed that passengers travelling in ‘reckless’ minibuses have a responsibility to request that drivers slow down. Doorgen emphasised that drivers have a responsibility to look out for pedestrians and vice versa.

She also called for a return to road conscious motorists adhering to the five Cs – care, caution, courtesy, consideration and common sense.

Stiffer penalties

“We are working with the Ministry (of Public Security) and asking for stiffer penalties, including for when (motorists) drink and drive and (cause deaths). So we are working with the Ministry and looking at upping the fines and taking more strident measures.”

She noted that they were also examining making vehicular manslaughter a more prevalent feature in the law books.

The penal code under which motorists are charged for causing death by dangerous driving is Chapter 51:02 of the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act.

According to Section 36 (1) of the Act, “Any person who causes the death of another person by the driving of a motor vehicle on the road recklessly, or at a speed or in a manner which is dangerous to the public, having regard to all the circumstances of the case, including the nature, condition and use of the road, and the amount of traffic which is actually at the time or which might reasonably be expected to be, on the road, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour and on conviction thereof…shall be liable to imprisonment for ten years.

Section 111 states that “upon the trial of a person who is indicted for manslaughter in connection with the driving of a motor vehicle, it shall be lawful for the jury, if they are satisfied that he is guilty of an offence under Section 37 to find him guilty of that offence, whether or not the requirements of Section 46 have been satisfied as respects that offence, and any person so convicted shall be liable to imprisonment for two years.”

Section 113 (1) of the Act also makes provisions for someone charged with manslaughter from using a motor vehicle or causing death by reckless driving to have their driving license suspended, pending a verdict and sentence. This order must come with the approval of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

It is felt by many that these penalties are inadequate, especially as the charge is innately vehicular manslaughter, as defined by causing death through the negligent use of the road ways.

Statistics

Recently, the Police Traffic Department said it recorded a 26 per cent decline in fatal accidents for the period beginning January 1, 2017 to May 15, 2017. Thirty-six fatal accidents and 40 deaths were recorded, compared to 50 fatal accidents and 54 deaths over the same period last year.

There was also a 39 per cent decrease in overall accidents for the same period, as 398 accidents have been recorded, as opposed to 651 accidents the previous year.

It is understood that private cars accounted for most of the vehicles involved, standing at 12, while there were four pedal cycles, three minibuses, four motor lorries, four hire cars, one pickup and four motorcycles.

The Guyana Police Force said speeding remains the major cause of accidents, accounting for 14 accidents in the first quarter of the year. Other causes were inattentiveness, driving under the influence of alcohol, failure to confirm to road traffic signs and pedestrians crossing in the path of approaching vehicles.

Operation Safeway received some credit for this success. Through this operation, traffic ranks have been on the roads conducting rigid exercises throughout the country, but more particularly in Georgetown, and on the East Bank and East Coast of Demerara.

It was only days ago that, in a particularly horrendous accident, 67 year-old Daniel Richmond lost his life. Richmond, a well-known umpire and cricket coach attached to the Sport Department of the Education Ministry, was reportedly returning home from attending church when the minibus in which he was travelling was struck from behind by a Toyota Tundra pickup.

Upon impact, the Route 41 minibus toppled several times before coming to a halt. The father of 10, who was unidentified at the time, died on the spot while several others were rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where they were admitted.