Partying young men contribute significantly to road carnage – Min Benn

– mulls reinforcing road safety during weekends

Police Commissioner Clifton Hicken revealed that while one death is too many, there has been a reduction in the total amount of fatal accidents when compared to the same period last year.
The Top cop made this disclosure at the launch of the opening ceremony of the Guyana Road Safety Stakeholders’ Forum 2024 and Road Safety Campaign launch.
The commissioner added that the GPF recorded 74 fatal accidents in 2023 and 56 in 2024. In addition, 84 deaths were recorded in 2023 and 67 in 2024 while 187 serious accidents were recorded in 2023 against 178 in 2024.
Additionally, Hicken noted that with Guyana’s booming economic growth the thoroughfares in the country are being developed significantly, as such he urged members of the public to use the roadways properly.
“The main idea of being responsible is to keep you alive and to keep your colleagues alive your irresponsible behavior can only not injure you but can kill the most important resources and that is human resources and so it will create a minus in terms of our development in the country and create a minus in terms of our human capital”
However, Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn highlighted that there has been a significant increase in the amount of motor vehicles traversing the roadways over the years.
“If I compare 2020, where we had 5,699 cars registered and mostly, of course, operating on the road, we have, by 2023, a three-fold increase in cars alone on the roads in Guyana, over 15,000. And that number goes true with respect to lorries. They’ve doubled minibuses by three times compared to last year. Pickups by three times and so it goes. On average, the vehicles registered and using the roads today are three times what it was in 2020. This is a dramatic improvement,” he pointed out.
On this note, the minister explained that young men contributed significantly to the carnage on the roadways, as such he explained that more safety measures should be enforced on weekends since most road accidents occur between Fridays and Mondays.
“Young men, mostly young men, some in the public transportation sector, young men who will go carousing and then become drivers of vehicles, and our statistics perhaps as yet does not discern what the impacts of driving under the influence are in relation to road traffic deaths and accidents. And of significance is the fact that the weekend, the extended weekend, which I have to note again, from Fridays to Mondays and in the evenings are the times at which we have mostly these serious events. And it behooves us to pay particular attention, the better discernment of what those statistics tell us and respond with measures to deal with the phenomena which the statistics tell us about” the minister explained.
Meanwhile, during the launch discussions were focused on the United Nations’ global imperative for road safety which aims to reduce road-related deaths by 2025.