Dear Editor,
Research is showing that each year, 1.3 million people die in road accidents worldwide. This makes road deaths the fifth-largest cause of death. Annually, deaths per 100,000 range from, in Trinidad, 14 people: in the USA, 11: in Barbados, 7: in Guyana, 17. More people die in Guyana from road accidents than in any other country in the Caribbean and about three times as many people are killed in Guyana in road accidents than those who are similarly killed in the developed world.
That we must do something with our errant drivers in Guyana is an understatement. The authorities must send a clear signal that the carnage must stop. Between accidents and migration, we are losing our best and brightest minds and our most productive workforce. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), death by accidents is now killing more people than malaria and AIDS.
The traffic laws in Guyana are too lax. The Police are too easily bribed. The public transportation arena is too politicised. It is reported that a lot of the minibuses and taxis are owned by politicians and senior Police Officers, so the traffic laws cannot be sufficient enforced, for fear of administrative or political reprisals.
Like the Government’s war on illegal drugs, or its war on corruption, there needs to be a similar war on traffic violators. However, until the political or administrative enforcement catches up with the vehicular carnage that is unfolding on our streets, the public will have to begin taking matters into their hands.
If you are travelling in a vehicle and the driver is speeding, or behaving dangerously, then speak out. Solicit others in the vehicle to speak out with you. If the driver continues, then take pictures of the driver or the vehicle and number plate and then share the pictures and stories on social media. The passengers on public transportation need to begin to name and shame the errant drivers. You either speak out or you will die. Don’t become another statistic. Speak out and live.
Sincerely,
Pastor WP Jeffrey
