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Dangerous roads
Kaieteur News – Last year during a spate of road accidents, some fatal and others causing extensive damage to public properties, government indicated that it would be applying the law to ensure persons who are culpable pay for the replacement and repairs.
Public Works Minister, Juan Edghill had even hinted that legislation targeting stricter fines and penalties should be introduced to curb damage to public property. He said the practice must end because it is causing damage to roads, bridges and streetlights across the country. The minister outlined that this not only affects the residents in the respective communities, but the cost of repairs hinders progress, since the funds can be otherwise utilised to foster development. “It takes millions of dollars to replace them. And these are the kind of things that people loosely drive and damage. So, while we are building out, and we are improving, we have to minimise damage…We have to be careful. We almost have to bring an end to damage through recklessness. Accidents are accidents, but recklessness is something that could be avoided,” the minister asserted.
This move deserves the support of all Guyanese as the destruction of property is almost as worrying as the crime situation and it is time that something drastic is done. But, in addition to the reckless drivers, stray animals also cause road accidents, sometimes with loss of life and the destruction of the vehicles. On the East Bank of Demerara, sometimes on the Corentyne Highway, and even on the West Demerara Highway, we come across these wandering obstacles, sometimes early enough to avoid a collision, but too often, at nights when visibility is at its worst.
As the law stands, the owners of wandering livestock that cause accidents could be prosecuted, but the extent of prosecution leaves a lot to be desired. In the first instance, many of the animals are unbranded, so that it is difficult to prove ownership. In other cases, the owners could be among the first at the accident, and they could easily remove the brand, so that identification of the animal proves difficult.
Also proving to be worrying is the disregard people are displaying on the roadways.
These days it is as if some motorists are bent on obliterating every traffic light, installed at great cost to reduce road accident. Indeed, at one time, Guyana was perhaps the only country in the modern world that had no traffic lights in its capital. At a cost of some US$2 million, and with money borrowed from India, lights were erected with features that allowed motorists to appreciate just how long they would have to wait at lights. Today most of those lights have been maintained and expanded to other areas.
The indiscipline on the roads has been so ingrained that some motorists have resorted to using streets that would help them avoid the lights. Even the various forms of public transport resorted to driving outside their routes. Impatience has also been a feature. Up to now, many pedestrians on approaching the lights, refused to wait for periods ranging from thirty seconds to ninety seconds, the length of time it takes to walk no more than 100 metres.
The police say that they have zero tolerance for traffic offenders, but while they have made numerous prosecutions, they still seem unable to effect attitudinal change. Why should a cattle farmer not control his cattle? The National Assembly had passed legislation designed to improve the behaviour of the cattle farmers, but nothing has changed. All that the legislation has done is to reinforce the right to slaughter a pig found in private property. And so we come back to the issue of people being responsible for whatever they have using the roads. In the heart of the city, we often see cows, some walking along the median at dead of night, some of the animals so dark that they are all but invisible to approaching traffic.
But there is another side to this. Motorists tend to speed, and most of those who actually collide with stray animals—if indeed animals wending their way home could be considered strays—actually speed. Sadly enough, there are not enough traffic patrols in the streets at nights and the few besieged ranks, barring those who have not succumbed to the lure of money offered by errant motorists, keep trying to ensure proper road use.
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