Police record increase in fatal accidents for first half of 2019

There has been a slight increase in fatal accidents recorded in the country for the first half of 2019 when compared to the same period for last year.
The combination of speeding and driving under the influence of alcohol accounted for a large percentage of these accidents.
This is according to Deputy Police Commissioner and Traffic Chief, Linden Isles, who during an exclusive interview with Guyana Times on Friday explained that these tragedies could have been prevented.
He stated that in total, there have been 49 accidents recorded throughout Guyana since the commencement of 2019, resulting in the deaths of 52 individuals.
In A Division (Georgetown-East Bank Demerara), there were 13 accidents which claimed the lives of 14 persons while in B Division (Berbice), 14 accidents occurred with the same amount of deaths recorded.
C Division (East Coast Demerara) recorded five accidents whereby six persons lost their lives and D Division (West Bank Demerara-East Bank Essequibo) had 11 accidents with 11 deaths.
Meanwhile, in E Division (Linden-Kwakwani), there were three lives lost as a result of two accidents. F Division (Interior locations) recorded one accident with one life being lost and in G Division (Essequibo Coast-Islands), there were three accidents recorded with three deaths.
“That will give you 49 accidents with 52 deaths overall which is a slight increase. We had 51 deaths last year from 44 accidents. Over 75 per cent of these fatal accidents were caused by driving under the influence of alcohol and speeding, a combination of these two.”
Guyana Times understands that in 2018, of the 51 deaths recorded as a result of fatal accidents, 41 were males while 10 were females. Of this total, two were children.
Meanwhile, for 2019 to date, 42 persons who died from being involved in a fatal accident were males while 10 were females. Of the 52 deaths for 2019 so far, four were children.
The most recent fatal accident occurred on Wednesday evening after a truck carrying logs turned turtle while climbing a hill on the Linden-Lethem trail. The dead man has been identified as 35-year-old Anil Persaud of Norton Street, Lodge, Georgetown.
It was reported that the porter, along with two others who were inside of the truck at the time of the accident, are said to have sustained minor injuries and were admitted at the Linden Hospital Complex, Region 10, for treatment.
Police preliminary investigations revealed that at about 14:00h, Persaud was driving the motor lorry bearing registration number BBC 9430 and upon reaching the top of a hill, the trailer, which was loaded with logs, suddenly began to descend.
As this began to happen, Persaud attempted to change gears and direction but instead, the vehicle toppled downhill. Although the porter and other occupants made it out of the wreckage, Persaud was said to have been pinned in the wrecked cabin for quite some time.
Nevertheless, he was pulled from the mangled cabin several hours later.