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ANARCHY ON OUR ROADS

Jul 01, 2017 Editorial, Features / Columnists

Traffic fatalities are among the leading causes of death in Guyana. They account for untold number of disabilities in the country. The indiscriminate use of the roads by all categories of road users, has led to anarchy on the roadways. It is reported that one traffic accident occurs every 45 minutes and one person is killed every 48 hours on the roads.
The most recent traffic accident occurred at Liliendaal over the weekend. It claimed the life of Debra Pompey in a car driven by a woman who the police claimed was allegedly drunk. With road fatalities and accidents on the rise, it seems that society cannot afford to ignore the fact that anarchy exists on the roads.
The country’s population is too small to lose 130 or more people killed annually on the roads.
Driving in Guyana can be potentially hazardous especially at nights. The roads run through heavily-populated villages, which are often unlit at nights. Most of the roads have no sidewalks and many are encumbered by vendors’ stalls, stray dogs, farm animals, parked or broken-down vehicles and sometimes piles of sand thus forcing bicyclists and pedestrians onto the roadways to compete for space with cars, mini-buses, trucks, horse-drawn carts and motorcycles.
According to the World Health Organization, traffic fatalities in Guyana account for 27.5 percent of total deaths and Guyana ranks fourth in the world in terms of traffic deaths per capita. Half of the victims who perish on the roads every year are pedestrians. When the loss of employment and productivity and partial or permanent disability are considered, road accidents have cost the country millions of dollars per year. When expenses for vehicle repairs and replacements are computed, the costs easily add up. Not to mention health care cost which is estimated to cost an additional half billion dollars.
There are several reasons for the high rate of traffic accidents and deaths on the roads. The major contributory factors to traffic fatalities have been speeding and drunk and dangerous driving habits.
The problem has been aggravated by the fact that new vehicles are being added to the roads at an increasingly alarming rate, estimated at about 12,000 annually. Some drivers of commercial vehicles and minibuses simply do not have the skill, experience or temperament to be entrusted with the responsibility for human lives on public roads. Many others operate their vehicles without a valid driver’s license.
Most accidents occur at night, on weekends or on holidays; they happen on open stretches of the highways, which suggests that more caution should be exercised while driving at nights. Many believe that minibus drivers are responsible for the most of traffic accidents and fatalities. A good number of them overload their buses, drive at unsafe speeds and display aggressive behaviour and poor road discipline.
The large number of traffic accidents can also be blamed on far too few traffic policemen deployed on the roadways to enforce the laws.
Guyana is a civilized society with laws which must be obeyed, however, enforcement of the traffic laws is critical to curbing drunk and dangerous drivers. But it seems that there are not enough resources and manpower to enforce the traffic ordinance codes. Police data have shown that in 2016 and in previous years, pedestrians continued to be the largest category of road users killed, yet much has not been done to solve this problem.
The recent road safety campaign mounted in an attempt to reduce the number of traffic accidents and fatalities has failed so far. Pedestrians, drivers and all road users have been urged to use the five Cs – Care, Consideration, Caution, Common- sense, and Courtesy. However, the police have a lot more work to do to end anarchy on our roads.

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