In less than 48 hours, three persons have died on our roadways in horrific accidents in three separate parts of our country – East Bank Demerara; West Coast Berbice and Linden-Soesdyke Highway.
This comes on the heels of efforts by the Guyana Police Force along with multiple stakeholders in the “Respect the Road” campaign that is focusing on education and enforcement.
The sudden and shocking death of someone close, especially due to an accident, can never be easy. The ensuing excruciating pain and mental trauma that are inflicted on surviving relatives can be unbearable.
In a fleeting moment, families are plunged into sadness and despair, having received the dreadful news that an accident took the life of someone dear to them. That’s the painful result and often, its real and lingering impact may be hidden from the spotlight of the media.
The reality is, people, including those who survive an accident, suffer in unimaginable ways. The recent spate of accidents, and more so the six persons who died in a horrific accident over the weekend in Berbice even prompted some to ask the question, how many more? One interpretation from that simple question speaks to whether lessons are being learnt from accidents over time. In other words, how many more have to die before better care is taken while using the roadways?
Given what has been taking place on our roadways, one could not be faulted for concluding that the results of the accidents may not have inspired more responsible behaviour.
There is uncertainty as to whether the mindsets of the regular errant drivers have been impacted, or have they learnt anything from what were obviously painful experiences of others. Judging from what continues to take place on the roadways, it seems clear that many drivers have not learnt or are clearly refusing to even be bothered by the harrowing fatal accidents.
On a daily basis, many drivers use the roadways in a very reckless manner thereby endangering occupants and other road users; the least, themselves. It becomes painful even to see how they manoeuvre, seemingly, without an iota of care for others. Again, it brings into question the role of law enforcement to try and curb such irresponsible behaviour, especially since some traffic violations do occur in the presence of Police. Many of those violations involve a minibus.
The general public is hurting and is pleading for help. Some time ago, a 12-year-old schoolgirl was killed in a horrifying accident at Nismes, West Bank Demerara. Despite the emotional devastation, her mother had made a public plea for passengers to demand being let out of a minibus that is speeding or from one in which the driver is imbibing alcoholic beverage.
In addition, the suggestion for undercover cops to pose as passengers is repeated. That would help to authenticate, if nothing else is working, violations of speeding, reckless driving and overloading among others.
Since the launched “Respect the Road” campaign, it is obvious that the Police are holistically demonstrating the sense of commitment to genuinely collaborate with members of the public to collectively tackle the situation. This is even more obvious as Police are seen daily clamping down on errant drivers.
There seems to be a large gap between the road safety campaigns and the practice of drivers. The severity of the carnage on our roadways seems to not have any impact on reckless drivers. Therefore, there is need now to tailor these safety campaigns to target drivers’ sense of safe behaviours and risk awareness with the use of persuasive approaches.
It is time that drivers and reckless road users ask themselves the question of “how many more” will die or be injured before careful use of the roadways and it no longer falls on deaf ears.
