Our roadways

Nov 26, 2025 Editorial, News

(Kaieteur News) – Guyana’s roadways have entered one of the most dangerous periods in recent memory. What should be arteries of movement and national progress have instead become corridors of chaos, confusion, and tragedy. The rapid pace of road construction across the country, while essential for a growing economy has created a daily reality in which ordinary citizens must navigate narrowed lanes, shifting detours, heavy machinery, and poorly managed worksites.

The result is predictable: more accidents, more injuries, and more lives needlessly lost. In Guyana everywhere one turns, there are unfinished bridges, half-carved shoulders, deep trenches, and worksites left open with little to no proper signage or traffic control. At night, many of these sites become outright death traps. Cones are missing, lights are inadequate, and warnings are either unclear or absent altogether. Drivers moving along familiar routes are suddenly forced into oncoming lanes or through temporary bypasses that are poorly marked. Those responsible for supervising these projects have failed to appreciate that construction zones require discipline, technical management, and constant monitoring, not a scattershot approach that leaves motorists to fend for themselves.

Compounding this dangerous environment is the sheer volume of heavy-duty trucks now dominating Guyana’s roads. Every day, fleets of sand trucks, stone trucks, cement trucks, and container-laden trailers barrel through narrow corridors never designed for such weight and traffic. The construction boom has brought investment and economic opportunities, but it has also placed unprecedented strain on the country’s transport infrastructure.

Many of the roads across Guyana were not built to withstand today’s level of use, far less to accommodate constant streams of overloaded trucks. Lanes are narrow, shoulders almost non-existent, and with ongoing road upgrades eating up what little space remains, motorists are routinely squeezed between speeding trucks on one side and construction encumbrances on the other. This creates a treacherous mix where even experienced drivers find themselves fighting to stay safe.

The consequences are right before us. A worrying number of recent accidents- tragic and fatal have involved heavy-duty trucks. The reasons are obvious. Some of these vehicles are overloaded far beyond legal limits. Many are driven at speeds wholly incompatible with their size and weight. Others are driven by very young and inexperienced drivers, some barely out of their teenage years, thrust behind the wheel of machines capable of wiping out entire families in a matter of seconds.

This is why the government’s recent engagement with truck drivers, in which strict weight limits and speed limits were reiterated, is both timely and welcome. A country undergoing explosive infrastructural growth cannot realistically remove these trucks from the roads, but it can, and must, regulate them with an iron hand. The new emphasis on compliance is a step in the right direction. But words, directives, and guidelines mean very little unless they are backed by unrelenting enforcement.

Guyana has no shortage of rules. What it chronically lacks is the consistent application of them. For years, the public has witnessed a familiar pattern: new regulations are announced with great fanfare, but after a few weeks the vigilance fades, officers return to “business as usual,” and reckless operators regain free rein on the roads. The result is predictable: more carnage, more public outcry, more morning headlines mourning another set of lives gone too soon.

We therefore insist that the Guyana Police Force must treat this moment with the seriousness it demands. The country is on the brink of catastrophe if current trends continue. Enforcement must be constant, nationwide, and non-negotiable. Overloaded trucks must be stopped, weighed, and penalized every time. Speeding trucks must be pulled over every time. Drivers’ underage or unlicensed must be taken off the road every time. No favours, no compromises, no “ease ups.”

The police cannot afford to simply make an example of one or two offenders. They must send a message that resonates across every construction site, trucking company, and sand pit in the country: reckless behaviour on the road will not be tolerated.

At the same time, contractors must be held accountable for the condition and safety of their worksites. Signs, barriers, reflectors, flagmen, cones, and adequate lighting are not optional they are indispensable tools for the protection of the public. Poorly managed construction environments are not mere inconveniences; they are hazards that destroy lives. Development must never come at the cost of human lives. The roads must not be turned into sacrifice zones in the name of progress. Now is the time for action grounded in discipline, responsibility, and respect for human life. If the authorities enforce the law with consistency and courage, Guyana can curb this rising wave of road tragedies. If they fail, the death toll will continue to climb and the blame will be theirs to bear.

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accident, dangerous road, Editorial, reckless driving, roadways

One thought on “Our roadways”

habeeb November 26, 2025 at 12:40 am

Guyana is a fast moving country.
They dig a hole here, there and everywhere.
Then they leave, go elsewhere, repeat the hole digging.
These are dangerous sites where ongoing rehab are done with
little or no warning signage posted for the public.
It’s a race against time…by the PPP and Ali govt.

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