“Why GPF has to constantly remind road users about their own safety?” – Cop

As stakeholders launch this year’s National Road Safety Month, Female Superintendent Shellon Daniels has expressed exhaustion at the constant need for police officers to remind road users of their own safety.
According to the superintendent, this is an ongoing issue, especially regarding the reminder to wear helmets.

“Why is it that the Road Safety Council and the police, men and women, have to be walking behind you as a driving force, asking you to wear your helmet? Your helmet is for your own safety. Every time a life is lost in this nation, it puts not only a burden on our nation, it puts a burden on each and every household,” she stated.
Using this year’s National Road Safety Month theme, “Do the Right Thing,” as the catalyst for her message, she emphasised that when drivers ignore pleas from police officers, it can lead to tragic consequences for families.
She added, “It puts a burden on each and every household. The trauma, when you look at it, when a person dies, most of the time, that person is either the breadwinner or someone closely holding the family together. So once again, our drive and our message is to do the right thing.”
Not only did she express her personal views on road safety, but she also spoke on behalf of Senior Superintendent and Traffic Chief Mahendra Singh.
“This year, the death toll, which you were previewed to a few minutes ago by Miss Baptiste, resulting from fatal accidents, speaks to multiple persons losing their lives owing to speeding, dangerous driving, and inattentiveness. However, inattentive behaviour from pedestrians also demands that we do the right thing in keeping with this year’s theme. Can we do it? Yes, we can… the law is the law and not what you want it to be.”
At the Road Safety Month event, Michelle Baptiste, a road safety analyst, revealed statistics for road deaths in Guyana from 2014 to date.
“In Guyana, for the period of 2014 to November 2, 2024, we have seen 1,212 fatal accidents resulting in the loss of 1,370 lives. Additionally, per every year from 2014 to November 2, male deaths were substantially higher than female deaths.”

Meanwhile, Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn expressed that authorities are pushing for a significant reduction in road fatalities.
“By 2030, we should only see 53 deaths per year on the roads. Just around 50 persons dying on our roads. Many things have been done in the legislation to make sure that we improve.
He further added that most of the accidents revolve around bad examples being set by the older generation of drivers.
“A lot of what is happening is a result of bad adult behaviour, poor examples which children see and replicate, repeat, and spread amongst their friends. So this is why we wanted to involve particularly young children, school children, and young adults in a simple message, which, while it starts for road safety this month, in this year, doing the right thing would also roll over into other aspects of behaviour in the public.”
The most alarming age category, which is 25 to 42 years old, accounts for the highest number of deaths on the roads.
Moreover, private cars account for 35 per cent, and motorcycles account for 32 per cent of vehicles involved in fatal accidents.
Strikingly, speeding is identified as the leading cause of fatal accidents, accounting for 75 per cent of lives lost.
It was observed that 67 per cent of fatal accidents occur over the extended weekend, when people are more relaxed, engaged in the consumption of alcohol and various types of drugs, and unwinding after work. (G2)