Clear windows, safer streets: Why Guyana should remove dark vehicle tints

Nov 28, 2025 Letters

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Dear Editor,

Guyana is facing serious issues in public safety and crime prevention. Despite the array of countervailing considerations in comfort, fashion, and heat, the preponderance of safety, policing, and public trust indicates that dark tints should be removed from vehicles. A policy of transparency and clarity around vehicle visibility is a low-cost, achievable reform that can help to make our roads safer, our neighbourhoods more secure, and our policing more effective.

Visibility is a core principle of road safety. Clear windows allow drivers to see and be seen, and in that simple fact lies much of the meaning of the word ‘communication’. Humans can make quick assessments of one another’s behaviour through a language of eye contact at a T-junction, a raised hand to yield at a driveway, a quick look that can mean let me pass or wait your turn.

Misunderstandings and abrupt manoeuvres, the root cause of many collisions, are less likely where we can see and be seen. That is critically important in built-up areas and at school zones, where pedestrians and cyclists, the most vulnerable road users, are making constant rapid-fire judgements about each other and surrounding vehicles. Dark tints cut that communication in half. When drivers cannot see and be seen, pedestrians and cyclists are far more vulnerable, particularly in the hours of darkness or in bad weather when risks are already increased. In the event of a collision, seconds are also critical. Emergency services need to assess injuries, contact hazards, and determine if there are passengers in the vehicle. Opaque glass not only makes this more difficult; it delays rescue and treatment when it is needed most.

Crime prevention and investigation are similarly compromised. Dark windows create an anonymity that obscures faces, activity, and goods from witnesses and cameras, reducing the quality of witness descriptions by CCTV and bystanders. That not only hampers investigations, it means that swift arrests are less likely. When the police lawfully stop a vehicle, visibility is also key to officer safety and efficient policing. Transparency reduces uncertainty and helps prevent the miscommunications that can escalate into conflict when neither party can see what is happening in or around the vehicle. If offenders know they will be unable to hide behind dark windows, a simple but powerful deterrence is put in place. Visible and unambiguous transparency on the roads can shift the behaviour of opportunistic criminals at low cost to other road users.

Legitimate concerns about heat, ultraviolet radiation, and privacy should be addressed. The existing windscreen already filters out a large portion of UV radiation and there are clear, reputable aftermarket films available that reduce heat while minimising impacts on visibility. Air-conditioning, properly maintained and refilled, when necessary, along with reflective sunshades when parked and ceramic films within strict, measurable legal limits can provide heat and ultraviolet protection without adding cost and uncertainty around opacity. We can also respect the needs of individuals with medical conditions. Narrow, well-documented exceptions can be made available to residents with a legitimate need that are clearly identified with certification that can be easily verified at the roadside, including clear and measurable standards of light transmission.

Privacy is also important but it is a balance, and in this case transparency on the roads should outweigh the comfort of the individual driver. Visibility helps protect pedestrians, enables effective deterrence against crime, and supports the work of law enforcement agencies.

Guyana is at a crossroads on this issue. The important questions are not about comfort or privacy but about accountability and whether we are willing to accept the serious trade-offs of restricted visibility. Removing dark tints from vehicles is a practical and achievable measure with immediate and visible benefits. The logic of the road is also about prevention, and if we believe that these simple steps can reduce collisions caused by miscommunication, increase the speed and safety of police stops, deter opportunist crime, and create a fairer society in which the rules are clear and applied consistently, then we have an obligation to act. Safeguarding our people and strengthening the rule of law is a national commitment, and transparency on our roads is no longer a metaphor—it is a mandate.

Sincerely,
Philip Inshanally

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• Clear windows, Letters, Philip Inshanally, safer streets, vehicle tints

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