Speed bumps continue to place our country in danger, and cost us more

Dear Editor,
Since my last letter, published in your letter column under the title “Speed bump can cause serious harm”, I haven’t seen any movement from those who are responsible for hurting this country in the name of road development. In fact, I have seen speed bumps being placed in greater numbers everywhere.
Every living day, I continued to witness incidents of hurt and harm caused by speed bumps to people and their properties. Last week, the egg van broke 17 trays of eggs. Half the number of blocks on a horse cart fell off while the cart was attempting to manoeuvre over a bump. An elderly man wobbled and fell just as he hopped over another bump. A young lady complained of losing her firstborn after the taxi in which she was travelling crashed over a speed bump and flung her into the front seat.
Editor, I continue to do more research, and have accumulated more data, because it is my conviction that whoever owns the idea to implement such a dangerous feature to our country’s road development was badly advised, or is simply reckless with the wellbeing of this nation. My research has shown that our country may have accumulated approximately 55,000 speed bumps and counting. Nowhere in the world did I find road development exposed its citizen to such danger.
As you embark on a journey through our streets, you sometimes encounter a speed bump every 30 seconds. Does anyone care what happens to our elderly, whose bones are already fragile, and who are most likely in pain?
The food in our stomachs isn’t allowed to settle, and this sometimes causes our stomachs to be upset after a journey. For years we have endured potholed roads. Today, speed bumps are everywhere, and our roads are no better than the potholes.
It has cost me $500,000 EXTRA every year to upkeep my vehicle. I spent $120,000 on four shocks, ball joints, spring-bushing, and other related wheel components. It has also cost me one EXTRA gallon of diesel ($1250.00) every day for 300 working days, amounting to $375,000 yearly. If 20,000 out of the 30,000 registered vehicles on the road are subjected to the same harassment, this could see a whopping $9.9 billion being lost by motorists yearly. This could have serious economic implications.
While the whole world is looking for fuel and energy efficiency, Guyana, in the name of road development, is shooting itself in the foot.
Recent information from the Madia dorm fire revealed that the fire tender had to hop about 50 times before it reached the fire site. This had hindered the fire engine’s rescue efforts by at least 30 minutes or more. Twenty lives were lost. Speed bumps have contributed to this loss. In any rescue operation, every second counts.
A similar occurrence happened in the Mahaica fire in which 2 children perished. A fireman admitted in a conversation that speed bumps have been a big challenge, and are partly responsible for most of the recent failures by the Guyana Fire Service. Every Guyanese must be concerned, and especially those who may live 100/200 speed bumps away from any of our country’s emergency services.
I was in conversation with a medical doctor from the US, and the doctor expressed shock and horror that 55,000-speed bumps were in a small country like Guyana. He explained that there are differences between speed humps and speed bumps; one is gradual and the other is abrupt. He also warned that the volume of hopping citizens endure daily could overwhelm our medical system with serious back and spinal injuries in a few years.
Editor, it is no secret that we have a very serious problem of reckless driving on the road. This problem originated from years of corruption in the Guyana Police Force. More than half the so-called drivers on the road never sat one day in a driving class.
Every conversation on driving at the street corners reveals that a driver’s licence could be had for a price of $140k/$160k. Don’t tell me the Government and all the Opposition Parliamentarians don’t know of this. Nothing has ever been done over the years to reform the outdated Traffic Department of the Guyana Police Force. The madness we are witnessing on our roads are symptoms of a disease that was left to fester for too long. I think all of us would agree that the Traffic Department has failed miserably. It has failed not because there are no hard-working personnel trying in difficult circumstances. It has failed due to not being armed with modern technology and advanced training to deal with the large volume of traffic in our country today.
You cannot use speed bumps to achieve what the law and law enforcement are mandated to achieve. It will always be absolutely necessary for certain categories of vehicles — such as fire engines, Police patrols, and ambulances — to move quickly in the execution of their duties. Subjecting them to speed bumps renders their roles useless.
Let me say a competent driver would always be a self-regulated person who upholds the law. Anyone who fails to possess these qualities has no right to hold a driver’s licence. The President promised to create 50,000 jobs. Here is an opportunity to create or add 10,000 traffic wardens with speed guns and ticket books in every corner of this country.
There are several alternatives to speed bumps, and they are safe, effective, and economically viable. Now is the time to introduce new regulations, hefty fines and revocation of licences for reckless traffic violations. Those convicted of causing death by dangerous driving should be given lengthy jail sentences. Speed bumps should never be used to replace or compensate for the failure of the Traffic Department. It is time for the President of Guyana to act, and initiate a series of actions to bring the road insanity to an end. Speed bumps have created a double whammy for the economic wellbeing and health and safety of people in this country. It has no place in a well-managed society, where the rule of law is properly administered.

Yours sincerely,
C Woolford