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Lamentations on Guyana’s chaotic traffic situation

Aug 25, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor,
I am writing in response to your editorial last week on the carnage on the roads. Your paper often refers to the car crashes as accidents.  They are not accidents but the inevitable consequence of excessive speed, drunkenness, use of cellphones while driving, callous aggression, potholes and worn out tires.  These are the hazards in daylight hours.  At night we can add headlamps on full beam with no dipping of lights for oncoming traffic.
Cars with an array of spotlights enough to light up the heavens, some cars with flashing lights like a Christmas tree and some cars with only one headlamp or no lights at all.  The dazzled oncoming motorist can hardly see to avoid the cyclists and pedestrians. Not to mention the black cows wandering about.  None of these is, of course illuminated.
In order to improve the situation the Government needs to lead by example.  This means that the ridiculous high speed convoys of ‘diplomats or VIPs’ stop immediately. One such convoy came screaming through Rose Hall on Sunday afternoon, where the speed limit is 50 km/hr.  The vehicles all had heavily tinted glass, which I am told is illegal.  Anyone who has read Franz Kafka’s ‘The Castle’ will know that these convoys represent a pretence at importance and urgency and are indeed empty vessels.  The point is if Government officials think they can push everyone out of the way so they can get by in their tints so can bus drivers.
This leads me on to bus drivers.  The police were randomly stopping vehicles on Mandela Avenue, opposite the Botanical Gardens on Friday 19 August at about 3 pm. There was an orderly line of stationary traffic but of course the buses were ‘undertaking’ and forcing their way in under the noses of the police.  There were about ten policemen, some of them heavily armed.  My wife and I asked the ranks why they were not stopping the buses.  They said they had not noticed anything and from their innocent expressions I don’t think they were even aware of the problem with aggressive bus driving.  Is the message getting through to the ‘boots on the ground’?
Deaths on the roads can be avoided if motorists abide by the law and the law is enforced when necessary.  It’s not a question of checking the driving ability of the elderly as a Minister has suggested.  They are not the drivers they are the pedestrians and cyclists being killed.  If the Government can’t lead by example then Guyana’s leading industries should ensure their drivers drive carefully and considerately and without honking their horns all the time.
I would suggest all newly registered cars must be made to keep their rear seatbelts so they can be used if required.  All taxis should carry rear seat belts. This will mean a refit in most cases but it will save lives and give some comfort to tourists who are here to enjoy Guyana in safety.
Finally, does anyone in authority take any notice of Ian MacDonald’s column in the Sunday Stabroek. This week he was reflecting sadly about people who die in their youth and will not see Christmases and birthdays and the changes of the seasons.  He finds a poem to send home the message.  Too many young people die on our roads.  Ian MacDonald is a mature man with a clear message.  It’s time for Guyana and its motorists to grow up too.
Robert Perks Belvedere

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