‘Parental responsibility’ needed after recent fatal accidents involving children – Min Benn

Parents were urged to exercise responsibility for the whereabouts and activities of their children taking into consideration the recent road accidents which claimed the lives of several teenagers over the past weekend.
While the Guyana Police Force (GPF) works aggressively to reduce the high road carnage rate and violations on the roadways, Home Affairs Minister, Robeson Benn said parents must also play their part in ensuring their children are safe.
“It speaks to not only the responsibility of the police and officialdom but also parental responsibility. What is your child doing with a car in groups with particular persons at certain hours in the evening? Not that the adults themselves give the best examples. A lot of the driving around with loud music playing with speeding and all of these things are examples given by adults. And so those are issues we have to work on,” Benn told media operatives on Thursday.
Over the last weekend, six teenagers have lost their lives due to vehicular accidents. On Sunday, four of them died after the vehicle in which they were travelling slammed into a parked motorlorry and then into a fence along the Resource Public Road, Canal No 2 Polder, West Bank Demerara (WBD).
At the time, the driver of the car, Davenand Singh, 17, was transporting 19-year-old Daniel Terbeni, 18-year-old Divyanie Narine and 19-year-old Amiesha Yasoda Jaikaran, when he lost control of the vehicle.
They all left a wedding in the area and were on their way to the Demerara Harbour Bridge when the accident occurred.
Hours before, a collision involving two cars, a truck, and a motorcycle at Unity Public Road on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD) claimed the lives of three persons, including 19-year-old Shawn Persaud of Huntley, Mahaicony, ECD.
In another accident, Thakoor called “Budoo” of New Amsterdam died dead after crashing his motorcycle into a utility pole along the East Coast Berbice Highway.
However, the Guyana Police Force has been working to turn around the number of speeding and drunk driving. Impaired driving – whether through drugs or cell phone use – has also been under their watch.
Statistics show that the most uneventful incidents are recorded in the nights and from Thursday to Monday.
Benn stated, “This is worrying. I think our statistics have already been destroyed by the trend for this year. I don’t think we will achieve the less than 100 road deaths that we achieved last year. But we recognize that there’s an increased number of vehicles on the road. We recognize that there are persons who still insist on Drunk Driving or just speeding through the joy of it, too much adrenaline that many of these persons are very young.”
The Minister also recognized the alarming rate of motorcyclists and pillion riders who have died on the roadway for the year while adding that his ministry through the Guyana Police Force, has been distributing free helmets to errand motorcycle users.
“We still will give out more. But we have asked the Guyana police force, the Head of the Traffic Department, and the Commanders to take them off the road…The police are going to give us again an update or revise even though again, traffic plan and they are going to take stronger action. We expect them to do so. They will be held to account for that,” Benn asserted.

Bar owners
The Intoxicating Liquor Licensing (Amendment) Act 2022 calls for liquor licence holders to play a more active role against drinking and driving; for one, by avoiding the sale of alcohol to inebriated persons who are likely to leave the premises by driving.
Breach of these duties by the licence holder has increased to $100,000 for a first offence, and $200,000 for a second offence.
The Home Affairs Minister pointed out that no one has been fined as yet but the Police will be looking at prosecution for delinquent license holders.
“I don’t think we have prosecuted any as yet, but this is one of the issues that the Police will deal with as we go forward.” (Rupa Seenaraine)