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Chaos on the roads

Nov 21, 2024 Editorial, News

…Editorial 

Kaieteur News- The country has erupted like it always does whenever things get overbearing. This time was the killing of an electrician when two trucks collided on Sherriff Street on Tuesday. We saw statements from the dormant Private Sector body- GCCI, the Ministry of Public Works and countless letters to the editor from Members of Parliament.

We at this newspaper have been warning and pleading for better traffic management and for the Guyana Police Force to address the reckless use of the roadways by truck drivers. This has fallen on deaf ears- even though the subject minister, Robeson Benn was last week talking about cutting road deaths by half. With the lax traffic enforcement in this country what Benn can guarantee Guyanese is that more lives will be cut short.

Just two days ago the Kaieteur News quoted the said minister saying that road deaths in Guyana in 2023 cost the economy an estimated $750million, highlighting that the severe financial impact of road fatalities, not only brings profound human loss but also places a significant strain on the country’s resources. As we reported back in February this year the Inter-American Development Bank in a publication titled: ‘Increasing Road Safety in Latin America and the Caribbean: Lessons from Behavioral Economics’ stated that road crashes are a significant public health issue in Latin America and the Caribbean, resulting in a staggering toll of approximately 110,000 fatalities and over 5 million injuries annually. These tragedies have far-reaching economic implications, costing Latin America and the Caribbean between 3 and 5 percent of its gross domestic product, the IDB publication said. So far for the year some 119 people have been killed on our roadways mainly due to chronic lawlessness and reckless driving.

But chronic lawlessness has several sides. First, road users, and this is not limited to drivers alone. There are too many stories of police roadblocks to snare drunk drivers, only for attending ranks to be called off by a call made by an inebriated driver to some senior officer, who passes the appropriate order to let the offender go. Second, uniformed traffic officers are more noticeable on our roadways, either on foot or on motorcycle patrol, but all too frequently, they either turn a blind eye to obvious violations, or are too busy trying to shakedown the unwary or the weak. Third, at a wider arc, there is the widespread perception that politicians and friends operate by a different standard, one largely criminal, and are able to make hay while the sun shines.

Furious and frustrated road users first throw up their hands, then throw caution to the winds. They will take their chances, and too bad for whoever gets in the way, is made to feel the mangling from their abandon to madness. If they (the leaders can get away with murder), then why not those operating below the radar? In other words, what is good for the head goose is also good for the lowly gander. Drivers of private vehicles, and some engaged in public transportation, stop or park wherever they feel like.

This is regardless of who is inconvenienced, or for how long. Further, there are so many tinted vehicles on the road today that there is difficulty distinguishing who is behind the wheel, and who they could really be behind the forbidding exterior. When these not so little things against the rules are broken at will, then it is just a matter of time for the bigger traffic violations to be taken in stride by both drivers, pedestrians, and other users. We cry when there is carnage, after that the routines of speed and discourtesy and disregard return in fuller force. When there is the perception that the law only applies to some, or more to some than to others, with the police complicit, then chaos results. We are living with that on our roads, aren’t we?

(Chaos on the roads)

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