Guyana’s incomprehensible incompetence killed Harry Brijmohan

Nov 22, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

The lines that follow this one here contains the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. For three consecutive nights last week, the latest being Saturday night, I had a discussion with two traffic cops at the junction of Hadfield and High Streets where Parliament is located. On each occasion, I asked the identical question. Let me explain.
When I leave Kaieteur News, with very few exceptions, I travel north on Lombard Street then make an eastern turn into Hadfield Street. It is one of the busiest junctions in the world. The traffic there is literally hectic and nerve-wracking. Vehicles coming from the south and the north going east into Hadfield Street are bound to collide if there is no regulation. There is none. Throw into this confusion, the mentality of the mini-bus driver.
Mini-bus drivers turning east into Hadfield Street have a fixed policy; they are not slowing down for the Lombard Street flow. To add to the nightmare, there is a huge crater in Hadfield Street just feet away from Lombard Street. So you have to dodge the minibuses and all other vehicles too because of the crater. That junction is a nightmare corner. I say emphatically, I have never seen a traffic rank at that junction directing things; never. I now come to the psychological nastiness of a moribund country named Guyana.
Once you manoeuvre your way into Hadfield Street and safety looks promising, you stumble on two traffic ranks. These gentlemen are either in High Street itself near the corner or they are in Hadfield Street near the corner or at the corner itself, but they are never where they are needed – at the insane junction of Lombard and Hadfield Streets.
In the evening hours for three consecutive nights – Thursday, Friday, Saturday — I passed these ranks, put on my hazard lights, stopped and asked the question; why are you here and not at that mad corner where you are badly needed. The answer for each night was the same’ “this is where we are posted.”
I ask every reader who went through this particular column – could there be a more mentally disheveled nation in the entire world? Two ranks walk about talking to each other doing absolutely nothing because there is no traffic to control and just yards away is a terrible vortex of vehicular madness. For you to understand the imbecility and asininity that inhere in the psychology of this nation, you have to witness this deep obscenity with your own eyes.
Only then can Guyana’s nihilism be brought into your consciousness. Seeing this madness, as I have seen it for three consecutive nights tells the story of incomprehensible incompetence of the Guyana Police Force.
I come to the death of Kaieteur News staffer, Harry Brijmohan. It is never easy for any human to see someone a day before only to learn the next day, that he/she is dead. When I went into Kaieteur News at 3.45 P.M. on Friday I was told that someone I saw at Kaieteur News the night before was dead. Harry met his death in circumstances that should never have happened but it did because the Guyana Police Force has too many incompetents in its midst.
I do not travel on the four-lane highway on the East Bank from Houston up because I know of the unbearable delays. What I did not know until the death of Harry was being discussed was that in the morning rush hour traffic, the police open up the south bound, eastern one-way lane to traffic going north. I did not know that. It meant I could very well have overtaken a car only to swerve into oncoming traffic. That is exactly what Harry did.
One cannot quarrel with the strategy to open up one of the lanes for two way traffic to ease the morning confusion but monitor the thing so as not to cause an incident as what happened to Harry. Harry’s incident cost him his life. There are three things the police can do. Put barriers along the passage so that drivers cannot overtake. Alternatively, have two cops on motorcycles monitoring the third lane that is opened up to north bound traffic. Thirdly, put cones all along the way.
Where I live on the Railway Embankment, that street becomes a one-way from 7 to 9 in the morning hour going west only. But there is no supervision. Some folks from out of town may not know about it. One day someone is going to swing from Conversation Tree Road east into that street at that hour. That is going to happen because this country will never learn.

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One thought on “Guyana’s incomprehensible incompetence killed Harry Brijmohan”

RLSG November 22, 2016 at 10:12 am

I HAVE STOOD ON THE CORNER OF CAMP AND REGENT STREETS AND WATCHED THE CRAZY TRAFFIC GOING IN ALL DIRECTIONS AND THE POLICE STAND ON THE CORNER AND DO NOTHING .. I DO NOT THINK THAT THERE IS SUCH A THING AS ‘USE OF INITIATIVE AND BEING PROACTIVE’ SINCE THEY HAVE NONE …. PEOPLE’S LIVES MEAN NOTHING … FREDDIE YOU ARE RIGHT AND I HEARTILY AGREE .. IS THERE ANYONE DOWN THERE LEFT WITH ANY BRAINS .. I AM LEFT TO WONDER SOMETIMES !!!

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