Police to address issue of children “washing vehicles” at traffic lights

Children positioning themselves at traffic lights along major roadways in Guyana, either to “wash vehicles” for a small fee or to solicit monies is a major concern that urgently needs to be addressed.

This is according to Traffic Chief Linden Isles, who – during a telephone interview with Guyana Times – stated that although these young children may not be obstructing traffic, the matter has to be dealt with.
As such, he noted that while there was a Schools Welfare Department, under the auspices of the Education Ministry, that should be looking into such matters, the Traffic Department was willing to work along with the unit to address the issue.
“What we can do is that we can have a word with the Schools Welfare Department about the very issue. Then we can see to come up with the best solution that can work to help these school-aged children to not be on the roads doing such. But it is really the Schools Welfare Department that handles issues with school-age children and such,” Isles explained.
However, in recent years, it is not only school-age children who frequent the traffic lights’ locations so that they can solicit monies from drivers and passengers but also the elderly.
Quite recently, persons have once again complained about “hot-spot traffic light begging” locations, such as Lamaha and Vlissengen Road, where mothers, along with their young children, beg for cash handouts from persons inside vehicles.
At the DSL junction, heading towards the East Bank of Demerara (EBD), there is usually two to four homeless persons waiting for the traffic lights to turn red and even at the Eccles stoplight, EBD, drivers are often greeted by at least one other person on a regular basis.
Additionally, at the Demerara Harbour Bridge junction on the East Bank Highway, it is a similar scenario.
According to some drivers, such situations continue unabatedly and are spreading along the major roadways in Guyana.
“They need to do something, whatever Ministry or Department that deals with these children and homeless folks need to try and get these people off of the road. Think about if there are careless drivers and accidents occur, these people can also be injured, or worse they can die. Even though they wait for the red light and may not be committing crimes for money they can lose their lives due to careless or drunk drivers too,” a taxi driver told this publication.
In light of this, drivers are of the opinion that a law should be put in place to eliminate this growing trend thus giving the Police the authority to remove these persons if agencies responsible are failing to do so or cannot legally do so.