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Don’t take river travel for granted
DEAR EDITOR,
Even though I don’t know the relatives of the late Latchman Benjie, my children and I would like to express our heartfelt sympathies to his family and relatives for their loss. I am quite sure it will leave such small children traumatized for a very long time.
Over the years I have been travelling to many places in Guyana and using the waterways was the main way of travelling. Based on my observation, I have concluded that citizens on the whole are very irresponsible when it comes to their lives. Some also endanger other people’s lives.
Most of them are accustomed to one way of life and even though it’s dangerous, they prefer that method instead of adapting to changes that would be safer for them and others. With the change in Government, many rules that were there but were not being implemented, were reinforced.
However, those directly affected protested against this move.
Editor, most of my time at different locations, my attention would be drawn to the dangerous scenes around me. I would always point it out and many would ignore or they would defend these actions, saying that is what they are accustomed to.
At many places, public and private water transportation could be seen traversing the waterways at night without any lights on the boat. On the waterways sometimes it’s very dark and visibility is very poor, one cannot see upcoming traffic until it is close. Many of these boats are owned by individuals for their own personal use. They would be laden with various items and sometimes overloaded.
What is more dangerous is that sometimes they would have their families in the boat; some might be small children, and not one life jacket could be seen in any of these boats. Go to Hubu koker and see many families loading their boats or discharging their goods, and most of the boats are barely above the water.
They prefer making one trip to save gas, and risk lives, instead of doing the right thing. Sometimes you see children as small as seven years old maneuvering an engine boat. Whilst this is admirable, it’s also dangerous, especially when the boat is laden.
As is the case of Latchman Benjie, if he had on long boots, that should never have been on, because many people would tell you that is a dangerous move, especially if you have to go into water.
Editor, those responsible should ensure proper safety precautions are in place and private boats should have life jackets, especially for children, lights on the boats at nights and emergency life rings. There should be a limitation to weights on the boats based on the size.
In order to save lives, we must ensure these rules are in place, and even though it might be hard for them to regulate themselves too, they should.
Over the years we’ve heard of many accidents on the waterways and most of them were as deadly as those on the roadways. That should tell us that the waterways have no sympathy.
Sahadeo Bates
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