Latest update January 30th, 2025 6:10 AM
Feb 23, 2015 Editorial
Frequent horrific road deaths repeatedly shock our society into agonized awareness of the deadly effects of combining alcohol with driving; but this has not yet resulted in decisive, effective action to rid the country of the perennial scourge of drunk driving.
Perhaps the alarming prevalence of drinking and driving has numbed our society into forgetfulness that dry statistics of alcohol-related road deaths represent real people and real lives painfully and needlessly lost.
Over the years there have been so many instances where eyewitnesses at the scene of fatal accidents have related that at least one of the drivers appeared to be under the influence of alcohol. However, the deaths evoke only fleeting public outrage, and then it is business as usual.
Drivers with high blood alcohol content are a perennial cause of vehicular accidents and deaths.
And it is not a recent problem; alcohol-impaired drivers have been killing and injuring themselves and others ever since Guyanese acquired motor vehicles. Today, burgeoning numbers of drivers, crowded and inferior roads, heavier and faster vehicles, ineffective traffic policing and other factors make drunk driving a serious national problem that must not go unheeded and unchecked.
Drunk driving is a social issue that resists simple solutions and tackling the problem at the national level requires resolute and inventive action. However, there are a number of actions which can contribute toward a reduction of the problem. One of these is to re-evaluate current prevention measures aimed at drunk driving, seek to make them more effective, and add new and more forceful measures. Furthermore, the means of enforcing such measures as well as the prosecution processes must be strengthened, and penalties such as fines or jail for drunk driving should be significantly increased.
In doing so, we could borrow from the experiences of many nations with much stricter laws against drunk driving than Guyana. Indeed, Guyanese society must move away from the high degree of community tolerance to alcohol that allows drinkers to drive with virtual impunity from legal or social penalties. One penalty that has proved to be the single most effective measure in other countries is automatic licence revocation along with a mandatory jail sentence.
Permission to drive is a privilege, not a right; the police in Guyana should not hesitate to revoke the licences of those who drive under the influence of alcohol. The length of the revocation should match the extent of intoxication and the seriousness of the traffic offences committed. Serious accidents, particularly those causing death, should result in the offenders being permanently banned from driving once they are found guilty.
Another measure that has been successful in other countries has been the practice of the police putting special markings, for a specified period, on the vehicles and drivers’ licences of drivers who were penalized for alcohol offences. More extreme measures include automatic impounding or confiscating of vehicles used in drunk driving offences.
The specific means Guyana employs to reduce drunk driving should be based on an intense study. However, it seems that the most effective means would be based on the perception of swift and certain punishment.
The success of the implementation of the seat belt law is a good precedent for working out appropriate action against drunk driving. Even though there are still significant lapses, the society has obviously accepted the legal requirement to wear seat belts.
Measures against drunk driving would be more difficult to implement because alcohol dependency is a chronic illness in Guyana. Nevertheless, there is a lot to be gained by addressing the issue much more urgently and persistently than in the past.
We owe it to the victims of drunk driving to act more forcefully to ensure that they did not die in vain.
Jan 30, 2025
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