Speed bumps cause Guyanese tremendous harm, and there are too many of them

Jul 13, 2023 Letters

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Dear Editor,

Since my last letter published in your letter column titled, ‘Speed bump can cause serious harm’, I haven’t seen any movement from those who are responsible for hurting this country in the name of road development. In fact, I have seen speed bumps being placed in greater numbers everywhere. Every living day I continued to witness incidents of hurt and harm caused by speed bumps to people and their property. Last week the egg van broke 17 trays of eggs. Half the blocks on a horse cart fell off while attempting maneuver over a bump. An elderly man wobbled and fell just as he hopped over another bump. Another young lady complained of losing her first born after the taxi she was travelling in crashed over a speed bump and flinging her into the front seat.

Editor, I continued to do more research and have accumulated more data because it is my conviction that whoever’s idea to implement such dangerous feature to our country’s road development was badly advised or simply reckless with the wellbeing of this nation. My research has shown our country may have accumulated approximately 55,000 speed bumps and counting. Nowhere in the world did I find road development exposed its citizens to such danger. As you embark on a journey through our streets, you hop sometimes every 30seconds for long periods. Does anyone care what happens to our elderly whose bones are already fragile and in pain? Our food in our stomach can’t settle in peace and may cause upset after a journey. For years we managed with potholes road. Today, speed bumps are everywhere, and our roads are no better than the potholes.  It costs me $500,000 dollars EXTRA every year to upkeep my vehicle. I spent 120,000 on four shocks, ball-joints, spring-bushing and other related wheel components. It also cost me one gallon diesel EXTRA ($1250.00) for 300 working days amounting to 375,000 yearly. If 20,000 out of the 30,000 registered vehicles on the road are subjected to the same harassment; this could a see whopping 9.9 billion being lost by motorists yearly. This could have serious economic implications. When whole world is looking for fuel and energy efficiency, Guyana in the name of road development is shooting itself in the foot.

Recent information from the Mahdia Dorm fire revealed that the fire tender had to hop about 50 times before it reached the fire site. This would have hindered the fire engine rescue effort by at least 30 minutes or more. Twenty lives were lost. Speed bumps would have contributed to this loss. In any rescue operation, every second counts. A similar occurrence happened in the Mahaica fire where two children perished. A fireman in a conversation admitted that speed bumps have been a big challenge and partly responsible for most of the recent failures by the Guyana Fire Service. Every Guyanese must be concerned and especially those who may live 100/200 speed bumps away from any of our country’s’ emergency services.

I was in conversation with a medical doctor from the US, the doctor expressed shock and horror of 55,000 speed bumps in a small country like Guyana. He explained that there are differences between speed humps and speed bumps; one is gradual and the other is abrupt respectively. He also warned that this volume of hopping citizens endure daily could overwhelm our medical system with serious back and spinal injuries in a few years.

Editor, it is no secret that we have a very serious problem of reckless drivers on the road. The origin of this problem emanated from years of corruption in the Guyana Police Force.  More than half the so-called drivers on the road never sat one day in a driving class. Every conversation on driving at the street corners revealed that a drivers’ license could be had for a price of 140k/160k. Don’t tell me that the Governments and all the opposition parliamentarians don’t know of this. Nothing has ever been done over the years to reform the outdated Traffic Department of the Guyana Police Force. The madness we are witnessing on our roads is a symptom of a disease that was left to fester for too long. I think all of us will agree that the Traffic Department has failed miserably. It has failed not because there are not hard-working personnel trying in difficult circumstances. It has failed due to not being armed with modern technology and advance training to deal with the large volume of traffic in our country today. You cannot use speed bumps to achieve what the law and law-enforcement are mandated to achieve. It will always be absolutely necessary for certain categories of vehicle such as the fire engines, police patrols and ambulances to move quickly in the execution of their duties. Subjecting them to speed bumps renders their role useless.

Let me say, a competent driver will always be a self-regulated person who upholds the law. Anyone who fails to possess this quality has no right holding a driver’s license. The president promised to create 50,000 jobs. Here is an opportunity to create or add 10,000 traffic wardens with speed guns and ticket books in every corner of this country. There are several other alternatives to speedbumps, which are safe, effective, and economically viable. Now is the time for new regulations, hefty fines and revocation of license for reckless traffic violations. Causing death by dangerous driving should be given a lengthy jail sentence. Speed bumps should never be used to replace or compensate for the failure of the traffic department. It is time for our President of Guyana to act and initiate a series of action to bring the road insanity to an end. Speed bumps have created a double whammy for the economy, health and safety of people of this country. They have no place in a well manage society where the rule of law is properly administered.

Yours sincerely,

C. Woolford

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• bumps, C. Woolford, Dorm, fire, Mahdia

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