Road Safety Council concerned about drivers with poor eyesight, health issues

As minibuses and hire cars navigate Guyana’s congested roadways each day, commuters place their safety in the hands of drivers they assume are fully capable. However, road-safety officials have warned that this assumption is increasingly uncertain. During a recent televised road safety programme, Chairman of the National Road Safety Council Earl Lambert highlighted that some public transport drivers are nearsighted, some are colour-blind and others face health issues that can slow their reflexes. Currently, there is no standardised system to ensure that drivers transporting dozens of passengers daily are physically fit to operate their vehicles. As a result, he said the Road Safety Council is now targeting the problem head-on, starting with a fair at one of the country’s busiest public-transport hubs.
“For the rest of the month, we have some activities planned. We have a fair at the Stabroek Square, where we want to look at public transportation drivers, their eyesight. There are some drivers who are nearsighted, but they’re working. Some of them are colour-blind; they can’t see colours properly, like the traffic lights,” he explained during a recent National Road Safety Month panel discussion.
The checks will be voluntary, but Lambert believes they can make a decisive difference. “So, we want to have them medically checked voluntarily. We’re not forcing anybody, but we feel it can help,” he added.
Traffic Education Officer at Traffic Headquarters, Inspector Richard Trotz, explained that on a normal day, those limitations may go unnoticed. But at 80 kilometres an hour (km/h), with a full bus and a busy junction ahead, poor eyesight and colour-blindness can turn into instant tragedy.
Against that backdrop of speed and impatience, officials said, a driver who cannot properly judge distance at night, or who struggles to distinguish red from green at a traffic light, becomes a hidden danger to everyone else. As such, they are encouraging drivers to participate in the Road Safety Council’s fairs to avoid future disasters.