The traffic mayhem

Mar 03, 2025 Editorial, News

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Editorial

Kaieteur News- Last week we reported on some eight road fatalities. The previous week we had a similar number. Young and old, people are going down like flies. Sometimes, they take down innocent bystanders and other road users with them. Motorcyclists and their pillion riders are particularly endangered, with road deaths and severe injuries persistent items in media reports.

Before it was minibuses that attracted the most attention and the most dread from other road users, including passengers, pedestrians, and others. Though that menace has not depleted significantly, it is motorcyclists who are now making the news more frequently and for the worst reasons: they die too young, or they are badly injured, with others also maimed in the process.  Lives are lost, and the living damaged for life.

Speaking last week at the Guyana Police Force Officers’ Conference, President Irfaan Ali pointed to the importance of societal responsibility in curbing reckless driving habits, stating that while penalties play a role in enforcement, public consciousness and accountability are crucial. “It’s not the best approach that penalties must drive change. The best approach is that self-consciousness, societal pressure, doing the right thing, should be able to drive change and drive home the point that we have to do the right thing, but unfortunately, when that doesn’t work, you have to go to stronger measures, which are the penalties,” Ali said.

Moreover, President Ali called for a holistic strategy to address the issue, highlighting key pillars such as enforcement, education, infrastructure development, and accountability. He reiterated that investments in road infrastructure must go hand in hand with strict regulations to ensure a safer and more efficient transportation system.

On our streets daily, there is the usual reckless speeding, with riders often seen weaving breath-takingly through traffic in the city and country areas.  They are playing games of dangerous roulette, with the odds multiplying against them daily.  Too frequently for comfort, motorcyclists are seen riding without helmets, or doing ‘wheelies’ (daredevil stunts in the face of oncoming traffic).  When bikes collide with the bigger machines, there can only be one loser, and another loss of life being the result.

One of the alarming aspects of the road mayhems is the age of those falling victim, either by their own hand, or those of others.  The number of younger drivers and riders on our roads is easily observable.  Speeding and carelessness seem to be their first callings, likely a product of overflowing testosterone, and the rush of adrenaline that accompanies taking chances by pushing pedal to floor, or throttles to the max.  Truth be told, older drivers, especially males, who are supposed to be more mature from longer road exposures, can also be major contributors to the routine breaking of traffic rules and regulations.  To ask for, or to expect, basic road courtesies, is an exercise in frustration.  Very rare are the occasions on which such are displayed or encountered.  Clouds of lawlessness and discourtesies are not the preserve of ordinary citizens, for what Guyanese live with on a daily basis is a saturation of both in every aspect of life, and at most levels in this society.

The educated might as well be illiterate.  The experienced who have seen a world of good and bad should be a helpful asset.  But too often they are too much in the middle of a roiling milieu, of which traffic mayhem is one of the more visible confirmations.  It has been the case that when there are traffic developments that lead to conflict, there are no calm, restraining voices, only those that egg on the involved from the sidelines.  Traffic drives Guyanese to madness, or makes them run for cover. Citizens take a leaf out of the thick playbook of veteran political figures, who themselves are the worst examples of all that is going wrong in this country. We speak not just of the mockeries that occur on our roads, but of the perversities that go on in remote hinterland communities, and the fixes that have become the norm to make matters go away.  Who is not drunk with power, is driving drunk most likely exempt from radar detection, or seemingly drunkenly mangling Guyanese who have the audacity to stand in their way. As regular threatening road users do to their fellows, there is the mowing down of those who are obstacles to the free for all that politicians routinely demand as their due.

One good thing is that there are more police traffic ranks on the roads, either on motorcycles or on foot. The bad thing about their presence is that they seem to be in their own world, minding their own business, which is not necessarily the business that they were put on the roads to address.  That is, to keep a sharp eye out for traffic violators, either through speeding, pranks, or what puts others on the road in danger. The more rules there are, the more there are deaths, injuries, and abuses.

(The traffic mayhem)

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• badly injured, bystanders, Editorial, Road Fatalities, road users

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