Driving in Guyana, driving over Guyanese

Dec 21, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths…

By GHK Lall

 Kaieteur News- The Guyana Police Force traffic ranks are busy, and so is the Traffic Court.  The scorecard tells the story of 60 errant drivers forced to park themselves before the Magistrate in the Traffic Court for various offenses.  Of the three-score drivers charged, one in three don’t turn up.  Deal with that, for a deal could be cut on the road.  Here are a few unworthy road thoughts.

For each one of those 60 drivers who violated some traffic rule or reg, I could point out ten with my eyes closed.  Oh, that is at a minimum, taking things easy, definitely traces of leniency.  Any arguments, anyone?  Get a load of this one, fellow drivers.  One driver was charged for dangerous driving and failing to report an accident and he or she is $50,000 lighter in the pocket.  My mind is more muddled than usual, so an appeal is made to any kind citizen: help wanted.  With a $30,000 fine for dangerous driving, is that citizen going to be inspired to go a bit softer on the gas?  Say, like 30 to 40 kilometres per hour less?  At this level of fine, I could be tempted to go out, get a gallon of gas, and get going on the roads.  Unfortunately, this is not jokey stuff, for deadly things are happening on the roads.  I take the liberty of guiding the traffic magistrate(s) to the top of the fine charts -six figures, to the maximum, as circumstances dictate.  Simply stated, there is that deterrent factor.  Of course, slick businesspeople get to write that off, and well-connected road users, get their tickets written off at the scene of their crimes.  One phone call is all that it takes, and there is usually the calling off of the dogs.  Apologies to Guyana’s dedicated, professional, and ethical traffic ranks for referring to them as canines that are made into pawns.

Everybody agrees, from politicians to the police to the peasant to a pedestrian like me: speed kills.  Where is the thrill in that finish line?  Speeding is a major contributor to reckless driving which escalates (or deteriorates) to dangerous driving.  C’mon, Mr. and Madam Magistrate: $30,000 and $50,000 fines are an incentive to rush out and push the gas pedal down.  It is said that the law must not be punitive nor vindictive, which are best left to ranking politicians.  But I would argue that the rehabilitative with a low fine is more about the imaginary than facing up to reality.

Incidentally, that 30% of shake-and-bake drivers that mooned the Traffic Court by their absence, I can visualize a summons being issued.  But there is a higher probability of arresting a minister in the Cabinet than one or a couple of that 30% crowd prowling about on the roads without a care and with a smirk.  There is law in paper form, and there are those laws of the road and by the side of the pavement.  It is that word that Exxon hates so much: negotiation.  I assure one and all that I have no intention of insulting Mr. Alistair Routledge, who after all qualifies as a citizen of this vaunted oil republic (maybe even a voter too).  I hope he didn’t collect that $100,000.  Sometimes I just can’t help myself.  The point is that unless there is seriousness in applying the law, all the rest is just talk.  Blabber and blubber, which President Ali knows all too well, and which the erudite John Hess called ‘noise.’  If he had his way, it would be North Korea’s idea of democracy.

Guyanese are misusing their roads, mangling and killing each other.  Reckless and dangerous drivers are.  Americans come here (they are known characters by now) and drive their oil truck over every Guyanese (sans a few).  I call that a clear and present danger.  If dangerous drivers are a big problem, dangerous oilmen are a bigger one.  They are killing the spirit of Guyanese, leaving them living with a sick look on their faces.  There is Uncle Tom and Uncle Sam, and there are these great oil fathers.  Kings of the local road, I anoint them.  Now back to the road, and it staggers.

Can’t be accurate: 42,000 traffic violations regionally in the first week of December alone.  Those must be for the CARICOM Region, and not the ten here?  If domestic, it is time to stay stuck indoors.  This is worse than coronavirus.  If 42,000 traffic violations, then how come only 60 tickets?  This must be a typo involving two or three zeroes.  Then again, could be the printer’s devil, or the devil in the details.  Time for a grim reality check.  Christmas is coming, rum drinking is increasing, meaning more speeding, traffic folks are feeling the cost of living.  Yeah, that lovely confluence of events.  People have to make a living using all the ingredients of the local traffic formula, they have to go on driving.  All those tickets written makes me calculate how many were not and why not.  President Ali turns up the heat, the cops do the beat.  Everybody drives over honest, hardworking Guyanese. Perverted politicians do it. Dangerous drivers do it.  Unscrupulous cops do it.  And dem peeple frum de outside do it too.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of this newspaper.)

(Driving in Guyana, driving over Guyanese)

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• charts -six figures, gallon of gas, Guyana Police Force, traffic court

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