The roads are scary

Sep 30, 2010 Editorial

Road use in Guyana is becoming more and more hazardous. Neither pedestrians, nor cyclists nor motorists can safely say that they can negotiate the roadways comfortably. All too often we hear of road accidents, some of them fatal, caused by the carelessness of one or other of the road users. Admittedly motorists cause the most accidents.
One recent accident in the city although horrendous, would not have made the kinds of headlines as some others, largely because the number of fatalities from that accident was small. Only the driver died.
What is mind-boggling is that while there are laws these are enforced in the breach. For example, there is a drunk-driving law but minibus drivers and conductors should refrain from alcohol intake while they are responsible for the lives of the passengers. Yet, it would seem, drinking by drivers is as commonplace as going to bed and waking up.
On Saturday, in one such scenario a driver, oblivious to the fact that others use the roadway, speeds down a city street. He casually attempts to overtake another vehicle only to be confronted by an approaching car. He crashes and dies in the process. Indeed he was driving a minibus.
The passengers sustain various degrees of injury. There is scarcely a hue and cry.
The dependence on this form of transport makes the situation more critical for routine examination. Last year, and for the preceding year, the police records showed that minibuses accounted for some fifty per cent of all road accidents and fatalities.
The police began to subject these vehicles to more stringent tests; they also began to demand more of the drivers and conductors. But the corrupt among the traffic ranks would allow some defaulters to slip by for a fee and they let it be known to the defaulters.
Over all, the absence of enforcement places members of the travelling public at great risk. It should come as no surprise that although they know that they are at risk they continue to take the chance. Many have related that they have been the subject of abuse from fellow passengers because they dared to criticize a driver. Others who shared the same view would remain quiet for fear of also attracting abuse.
We have often noted the stepped up traffic campaign by the police in the wake of a serious accident—one that might have caused multiple fatalities. But the campaign soon peters out because we as a people are never serious about enforcement. We are quick to be compassionate; we beg for the offender and coming from the same society, we encounter ranks who succumb to our pleas.
But the nonsense does not end there. We have people who boast about having to buy a driver’s licence. These are the people who can barely keep a vehicle on the roadways and the ones most likely to disregard every traffic law, particularly those that concern speed limits.
People ignore traffic lights because they see them as a waste of time. They seem to do so with impunity because they have total disrespect for the law and they are allowed to continue this disrespect. Policemen in the vicinity are said to take no action because they detest writing the reports.
But this is what causes the problem. Every day vehicles collide or end up in canals and drains because of drivers’ carelessness. Guyana, because of this, has become a graveyard for vehicles. At the same time, the hospitals must try desperately to keep up with the number of patients they receive as a result of the accidents.
In this the electronic age, it is surprising that the police have no electronic monitoring of motorists. They therefore allow banned drivers to take to the streets unnoticed. Only court records would expose the illegality and only if the driver commits another traffic infringement.
In the developed world people are afraid to become involved in accidents because of the punitive nature when they are wrong. The system affects them where it hurts the most—in their pocket. In Guyana the fines are a joke. A man collides with the Police Commissioner, is found to be drunk and he pays a token in the courts—less than US$40.
Small wonder that the roads are becoming increasingly dangerous. The cost of causing an accident and walking away is almost negligible.

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The roads are scary

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