Road-weary and traffic wary thoughts

May 07, 2017 Countryman, Features / Columnists

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By Dennis Nichols

Back on the Essequibo Coast, and in the compound of the Anna Regina Police Station three days ago,

it’s raining. As the downpour fizzles to a drizzle I stand and gaze at a tragedy – what once was a motorcycle, and spared a thought for a fledgling family, now only mother and unborn child without a husband and father.
Twenty-one year-old Hazrul Bacchus on his ‘CBR’ was reportedly trying to overtake a car when the accident occurred. His helmet couldn’t save him from the blades of a tractor plough chipper parked close to the road into which he crashed after losing control.
How swiftly death may come; how arbitrarily at times, yet it has been said that accidents don’t just happen; they are caused. The Essequibo Coast road is a narrow two-lane highway. There isn’t much room for error or maneuverability but you wouldn’t think so after observing the rate at which some cars, minibuses, and motorcycles zoom along, especially on the straight stretches between Charity and Supenaam; anything under 100 km/h seems anathema to these drivers and riders.
Essequibo residents say many of them are young and inexperienced, and profess amazement that they have been issued vehicular licences. And not only in the Cinderella County, but countrywide, we have road users who are not only reckless, but display behaviour not unlike some of our four-footed kin who share the thoroughfares with us; think donkeys, goats and pigs.
The roar and the whoosh of speeding vehicles continually punctuate the relative quiet and rustic ambience of the nearly 40 miles of coastal road, but it obviously isn’t the same mad scramble of hustle, bustle, and jostle you find in Georgetown or the East Coast and East Bank Demerara corridors. And that may be a problem. Lulled by a false sense of insurance and freedom, it may not be that big a deal to let your guard down; a fleeting distraction maybe, that could spell disaster, particularly for motorcyclists.
For the last three years I have been travelling between Georgetown and the Essequibo Coast, and I’m constantly shaken at the incongruity between the latter’s tranquil tenor and its road kill, humans and animals. Among the scores of vehicular accidents and related fatalities, a few stand out, especially over the last five months.
The first was in January 2014 when a father and son were struck and killed while walking to their home at Land of Plenty, bringing their vacation from overseas to a traumatic end. And one of the worst, at Richmond, almost a year ago claimed the lives of four young men after a mini-bus and car, both crammed with passengers, collided head-on. Residents claimed most of them had been partying.
Then there are the motorcyclists. From December 9th last year to April 28th (less than five months) in this relatively sparsely-populated community, four young men on motorcycles lost their lives in horrific accidents. The first was a doctor who graduated only a year ago and was attached to the Suddie Hospital. The second was a mechanic, the third a GPL technician, and the fourth, just a week ago, worked in his family’s food business.
In each case it was alleged they lost control and crashed; two into lorries, one into a fence and one (mentioned earlier) into a tractor plough. Three of the four were reportedly speeding. Their ages ranged from 17 to 25. What a waste of youth and potential!
Something puzzled me. It actually slipped my mind, because I wanted to know why, with an asphalted, uncongested road and so many speed-related accidents, there were no speed bumps or humps to slow vehicles down and possibly lower fatality numbers.
An officer at the Anna Regina Traffic Department reminded me that speed bumps on a main thoroughfare like the one in question are prohibited by law, as they are on public roads in countries around the world. Some of the reasons cited for this are that they will slow down emergency vehicles, increase traffic noise (slowing down, speeding up and revving) cause damage to some types of vehicles, and cause discomfort to drivers and passengers, such as those with chronic back pain.
These are valid points, but I would argue that such ‘traffic calmers’ as they are called, may have some merit if used sparingly and placed strategically; maybe close to some of the more dangerous turns and/or near schools. Of course there are the pedestrian crossings, but as we all know, not every driver or motorcyclist exercises the necessary care and courtesy when approaching them. The same thing happens with regard to road signs. Guyanese vehicle operators probably hold some unofficial record for disregarding the most basic rules and tenets of civilized road behaviour.
But things may be changing, traffic-wise, on the Essequibo Coast, as explained by the officer with whom I spoke recently, and also from chatting with taxi drivers and commuters who frequently traverse the roadway. The latter keep a sharp lookout for police cars, and a few of them are overly cautious when one is spotted or when they are navigating in the vicinity of the Anna Regina Police Station.
They are of the view that the traffic police there ‘don’t play’. The officer corroborated these observations while asserting that in his opinion, one road fatality on the Essequibo Coast is one too many, as he briefly outlined some of the ‘menu of measures’ that are in place to address this issue.
Apart from the regular 9:00 am to 5:00 pm daily road patrols, there are special exercises from 5:00 pm to midnight, and with the recently-implemented ‘Operation Safeway’, police officers make regular random checks on vehicles for speeding and DUI, utilizing breathalyzer tests. They also look for bad drivers in general and unlit, dangerously-parked vehicles and objects which are deemed obstructive to public safety such as builders’ materials.
The officer said that there is a no-nonsense approach, whereby DUI offenders and their vehicles are taken into custody and remain there overnight after verification by certifying officers who accompany each shift. Lectures to schoolchildren and a Distance Education spot on the Ravi D TV morning show, complement these measures.
All of this is great for Operation Safeway’s stated aim, which includes ‘restoring much-needed road safety consciousness’ aimed at minimizing accidents. But I can’t help wondering how far this will go in changing the minds, hearts, and general disposition of our road users.
I think this way when I hear and see young ‘CBR’ motorcyclists ‘flying’ down the stretch of road between Hampton Court and Walton Hall, and I cringe when I see mini buses packed with passengers, including schoolchildren, doing the same. In some areas, there are as many animals as pedestrians on the roads, casually crossing from one side to the other. A sudden darting, an abrupt swerve at 100km/h (62 mph) and the result could be heartbreaking; it’s happened so many times before.
Traffic woes on the Essequibo Coast Road are certainly not the worst in the country, replicated as they are, and surpassed, on many of our major highways. Accidents will continue to occur as long as road users continue to be human, and err, and as long as animals share the public spaces with us. All the laws, measures, and strategies wouldn’t change that. But for those traffic-tired like me who must, of necessity, continue to use our roadways for any number of reasons, we need to be more wary than weary, conscious that among other things, we share the highways and byways with pigs, donkeys and goats. And I’m not necessarily talking about four-footed animals.

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