Latest update April 7th, 2025 6:08 AM
Region Three drivers suggest more undercover cops
– as Rohee calls for more involvement in road safety issues
As part of the Government’s initiative of building safe communities, the Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee has been facilitating meetings with drivers in the different communities to listen to their suggestions on how to improve road safety and establish steering committees. Minister Rohee, yesterday met with the drivers of West Coast and West Bank Demerara.
The minister engaged the drivers on the West Coast at the Uitvlugt Secondary School and on the West Bank at the Toevlugt/Patentia Neighbhourhood Democratic Council (NDC) building at Goed Intent.
“This is all part and parcel of a series of meetings that we are organising across the country to encourage citizen participation in the road safety issue,” Minister Rohee told the drivers.
“This meeting is to meet with you, to talk around the issue, to get ideas from you and at the same time solicit your involvement,” Minister Rohee said.
He told the drivers that they must become involved in road safety and to make the issue much more powerful because they must pass the message on and try to make people become more aware of road safety issues.
The West Coast Road Safety Steering Committees
“We don’t have enough police ranks and it is in recognition of this fact that we are seeking to make a more vibrant and geographically expansive national road safety policy,” Minister Rohee said.
Regional Chairman, Region Three, Julius Faerber called the meeting a timely one for the reasons that the new school year starts today.
“You will see quite a lot of movement on the road,” he told the drivers,
“Be more vigilant, more cautious on the roads and look out for children who use the road carelessly,” he urged.
“We need to work together to limit the number of road fatalities”, Faerber told the drivers.
The drivers made several suggestions, among these were the need for undercover cops in unmarked vehicles to more effectively regulate traffic infractions, the need to enforce speed and weight limit for trucks, as well as the need for tractors to remove their caged wheels before driving on the roads.
The drivers also asked that cops issue tickets instead of confining vehicles for traffic infringements.
The newly established West Coast and West Bank Road Safety Steering Committee has two persons each as minibus drivers, hire-car drivers, private-car drivers, truck- drivers and, one representative each from the Police Force, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the National Road Safety Council.
The committee will soon meet and establish a Road Safety Council comprising persons in the Division.
The established council will coordinate and implement all road safety activities in the Division and make recommendations to the National Road Safety Council towards addressing road safety concerns in the division.
The council members will also be trained as road safety lecturers and will assist in the training of road safety patrols in the communities. They will also carry out road safety lectures to the schools and communities in the division.
The Minister had previously met with the drivers on the East Coast, East Bank and West Coast Berbice and will next meet with drivers on the Essequibo Coast.
All the recommendations from the drivers in the different divisions will be documented and cost factored and those found sound will be implemented with the aim of improving safety on the roads.(GINA)
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