Guyana needs inquiry into road safety

Jul 24, 2011 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), for the second time in the month of July, laments the tragic death of innocent persons on our roadways. On this sad occasion, five persons, Coretta Benjamin; Crazel Paul; Erica La Cruz; Peter Mc Clennon; and Junior Duncan, all from Sophia tragically and unnecessarily lost their lives on Homestretch Avenue in Georgetown last Monday.
With their deaths, road fatalities have climbed to 68 for this year, an average rate of about one death every three days. The APNU feels that this is an atrocity.  It calls for an independent Commission of Inquiry to investigate the causes of this chronic carnage and to propose recommendations to make the country’s roadways safe.
People are fed up with the inaction of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Guyana Police Force. No wonder that, in wake of Monday’s accident, scores of people on Wednesday protested at the Ministry of Home Affairs against drunk and reckless drivers. They petitioned for immediate action to be taken and  demanded  justice and harsher penalties for the offenders.
This week’s protests follow another several years ago.   About twenty women dressed in black – who came to be called Mothers in Black, began to assemble outside the Parliament Buildings in Georgetown at noon on Fridays to protest the deaths of their children in traffic accidents. They promised that one of their numbers would stand there at the same time every Friday until the Motor Vehicle and Traffic Act was revised.
They simply sought the introduction of tests for persons suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol or other narcotics; radar traps for the detection of drivers exceeding the speed limit; suspension of the driving licences of persons involved in traffic fatalities until they were found culpable in the courts; increased fines for traffic accidents so that they act as a real deterrent; and the mandatory use of safety belts for adults and safety seats for children.
Their protests did bring about some changes but these have not been enough.  The nation demands more decisive action, in the form of a Commission of Inquiry, from the PPP/C Administration.
It was Police Commissioner, Mr. Henry Greene himself who disclosed that out of the 62 accidents recorded for the period January to July, there have been 68 deaths.  He also pointed out that, within the same period, the Police recorded 7,660 cases of speeding; 4,220 cases of overloading in public transportation; 579 cases of driving under the influence of alcohol; and 378 cases of drivers without licences.
Not enough has been done to reduce these serious offences.
Most of these road accidents can be prevented by rigorous law-enforcement and proper licensing of vehicle drivers. Some wild drivers seem to be unafraid of prosecution by law- enforcement officers. They feel free to disobey road signs; drive at excessive speed; stop and start without warning; jump major roads and ignore traffic lights. Georgetown’s broadest avenues – Carifesta and Homestretch – have been transformed into racetracks for motorcycles and minibuses.
The independent Commission of Inquiry must insist that:
· Roads, especially newly-repaired or resurfaced ones, are correctly marked and that road signs are erected where they could be seen.
· Pavements, pedestrian crossings and sidewalks are clearly demarcated enabling pedestrians to move continuously from street to street without danger.
· Minibuses, which have become vital to public transport, are inspected rigorously for mechanical defects.
· Shipping containers and derelict vehicles are not parked on roadways.
· Drivers of minibuses, hire cars and taxis are to qualify for a special “commercial drivers” licence which emphasises safety and suitability for holding responsibility for the lives of passengers.
The biggest contributory factor to fatalities, perhaps, has been drivers’ dangerous driving habits. Some, especially drivers of minibuses, simply do not have the skill, experience or temperament to be entrusted with responsibility for human lives on public roads.
Many drive defective or overloaded vehicles recklessly or at unsafe speeds and display aggressive behaviour and poor road discipline.
Guyana, with a death rate from road accidents of 21.8 per 100,000 of the population (for 2006), held the unenviable rank of fifth place among countries in the Americas for traffic accident-related deaths.   Little wonder, Minister of Health Dr. Leslie Ramsammy once complained that an average of 18 road accident victims per week receive surgery at the Georgetown and New Amsterdam Public Hospitals alone.
Every day, public hospitals are obliged to treat road accident victims, often with surgery. He once estimated that the cost of care for accident victims amounts to more than $100 M per year at the GPHC alone.
Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee is bound to be aware of these grim facts. It was he who declared that Guyana’s road death rate was “among the highest in the world.”  Yet what has he achieved over the past five years?  It is time for a Commission of Inquiry to be held in order to stop this carnage.