Road carnage

Every year in November, Guyana observes Road Safety Month. This year, Guyana is observing the month under the theme, “Be wise, stay alive, stop speeding, don’t drink and drive”.

Sadly this month began with four persons being killed within two days on the Corentyne Highway.

Over the past week, 15 people have been injured in separate accidents which have been reported in the media. The first 11 persons were injured in an accident at Mahdia, followed by three others in Corentyne and a Policeman in Georgetown. This comes even as the Government calls for road users to be more cautious and express more care on the roads.

As a matter of fact, President David Granger last Wednesday announced a proposed three-point plan, which if used, can meaningfully decrease road carnage. Outlining the plan, the President spoke of the need to be more stringent with traffic laws, which are in dire need of strengthening. More so, the Head of State called for the tauter enforcement of traffic laws.

But even as these are being proposed there must be a prerequisite educational programme about cellphone use while driving and driving over the speed limit. However, for this to work, an unbendable system must be implemented for those Traffic Officers who may be tempted to take an inducement and allow these defaulters to go free. We indeed live in a society where persons obviously feel that slipping through traffic offences are an easy phenomenon, since these officers are easily persuaded.

Statistics released by the Guyana Police Force (GPF) have shown there were 76 recorded fatal accidents from January to September 30. But if we were to add the fatalities from September to now, we are assured that we will be alarmed.

Meanwhile, the Police statistics also highlighted that speeding continued to be the leading cause of fatal accidents. Other causes included driving under the influence of alcohol, failure to conform to road signage, error of judgment and breach of traffic light signal. Guyana has the worst ranking in road fatalities in the Caribbean and this fact is very worrisome.

The proposal as announced by the Head of State also calls for proper engineering, particularly the structure of the roads. Since Guyana does not have major highways, but rather roadways, the President is calling for these to be safer, with additional side sidewalks and pavements.

However, even if all of these are implemented, there must be more rigorous measures to deal with drunk driving and certainly a 02:00am curfew for the closing of driving spots and nightclubs will not curb this problem.

What the Government and Opposition need to do to curb the temptation of drinking and driving, is to move to the National Assembly and pass legislation that will turn the offence of causing death by dangerous driving under the influence into an offence of manslaughter. Certainly, accidents do happen, there is no doubt, but this can be reduced if more caution and care is articulated on the roadways.

As we head to the busiest time of the year and as we bring the curtains down on 2015, in a matter of less than two months, it is hoped that Guyanese express much more appreciation for life and approach our roadways with more respect. However, more importantly it is hoped that our Parliament can bring more semblance to the roads by implementing firmer legislation to deal with offenders.