The road carnage is a national scandal

Nov 04, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor,
With no malice or rancor aforethought, permit me to proffer my two bits on the road carnage occurring in Guyana, and at the selfsame time submit possible life saving solutions. The very fact that on average more than one person per day dies needlessly on the roads, and hundreds are seriously injured every year is tantamount to a national scandal. The carnage brings in its wake (no pun intended) heartbreak and suffering to far too many individuals and families especially the young.
As a teacher of English, I have some difficulty in coming to grips with the term road accident. According to the well-respected Oxford lexicon, an accident is defined as an event without apparent cause, or an occurrence of things by chance. With hundreds of road deaths each year, the definition of accident certainly does not apply and if it does only to a small percentage. We all have a moral responsibility to seriously address this matter of grave concern, according it utmost priority, and towards this end the Government must show leadership. The year 2016 is almost drawing to a close, and it is at this juncture that I am seeking answers to promises made by the past and present government. Not being skilled at exhumation and even worse in forensic science I will just deal with the present and immediate to address my concern and inquiry.
In November 2015 at the official launching of Road Safety Month at the Arthur Chung Convention Center, President Granger in his feature address to students and other stakeholders openly stated that the time had arrived for order and sanity to be brought to the roadways of Guyana. He also mentioned Guyana’s commitment to achieving by 2020, the UN Sustainable Development Goal No. 3, which aimed at reducing the road fatalities and injuries from road accidents by one half. Giving further impetus to the message, in his remarks to the forum, Vincent Alexander, Advisor to the Minister of Education assured all present that the Ministry would be doing their best to ensure that speed bumps were placed in the vicinity of schools in Georgetown in the initial phase, while the same will be done across the country in the medium term. Pray, tell me has this been done, or is it just another example of rhetoric, or merely telling the public what they want to hear at the specific moment in time.
Strangely enough the cry surrounding the causal factors for this spiraling toll of fatalities have been the same for the past eight to ten years, from the tragedy at Amelia’s Ward, the horrific head-on collision in 2010 between a minibus and a truck along the Suzannah, No. 19 Village Public Road, Corentyne that left 12 persons dead, including a two-month-old, to the one on Homestretch Avenue in 2011, just to name a few. Rural roads run through heavily populated villages, which are often poorly lit or totally unlit at night. In addition, vying also for the limited navigable space available are farm animals, stray dogs, parked and broken down vehicles among others.
The reckless driving habits of some drivers have been the biggest contributory factor to the rising fatalities, as well as the displayed inexperience and temperament of drivers of commercial vehicles and minibuses. Simply and plainly put, they should not be entrusted with human lives on public roads. Seemingly, the government is also out of step with the grand march of things, especially the increasing rate that new vehicles estimated at about 1,000 per month are being added to the roads. As the President said in 2015; the time had come to return order and sanity on the roads. It is evident that the time came, went and carried with it many more lives. A new time has now come and to slightly alter the words of a well-known song by Sam Cooke, A change has “gotta” come.
The change is going to start from the top and trickle from the top, meandering its way through local village authorities and finally end on the streets where it all started. I am calling on President Granger to clearly outline to the populace his existing and future plans, so that all can become aware of the extent of his involvement (especially his priorities) in the process towards rectification of this national scandal.
Yvonne Sam
Editor’s note: Ms Sam’s interesting letter is lengthy so its conclusion will be carried in our edition tomorrow.

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