The road carnage is a national scandal

Nov 06, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor,

Editor’s note; this is the final section of Ms. Sam’s opinion carried on our Friday.
Investigations have shown that fatalities on rural roadways are attributable to rampant speeding both day and night, drunken driving and too few policemen being deployed. With the recent graduation on July 23, 2016 of 200 police recruits from the Felix Austin Police Academy, the problem of speeding etc. is as good as solved. The Minister of Public Security is hereby called upon to display a greater sense of responsibility with respect to road safety. What stringent measures have been put in place? What if any measures are left to be instituted?
Has the time arrived for Guyana to start considering the installation of mandatory reflective and overhead gantry signs such as is being used in developed countries e. g Canada, U. S.A and England? There is a strong need for a major nationwide publicity campaign to inform the public that the actual speed limit on any minor road is the maximum safe speed that a vehicle can travel on that road. There should be lower speed limits set for minor roads, and the government can invest as well as solicit assistance from the U.S.A Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (under their 2009 pledge to work with Caribbean government to strengthen public safety) for the purchase of speed reader boards, driver feedback signs etc.
All speed-reader boards alert drivers to their actual speed as they pass by. Some of these reader boards also flash warnings such as “SLOW DOWN” when speeds reach a pre-set limit. Studies done on driver feedback signs have indicated that they are highly effective in slowing traffic. Drivers who commit road traffic offences should be required to undertake, at their own financial expense, special remedial safe driving awareness lessons. Trucks and other heavy duty equipment should have a visible identifiable reflector sign indicating that they are carrying heavy loads, and should travel with their flashers on especially at night. On the roadway they should only park in areas designated as rest stops and not just on the side of the road, or around a bend with lights off.
New vehicles operating in Guyana should have ABS (air bag system) which has been credited with saving many a life. This measure comes hand in hand with mandatory car governors or rev limiters that prevent speedometers from reading above 90 m.p.h. The implementation of clear road markings, centre line, edge line and stop line. Junctions should be identified at night by the use of reflective green delineator posts. School zones should be clearly identified with the appropriate signs, and should have speed humps around its entire perimeter. After all children; are the future and as such must be protected.
In 2012 the Guyana National Road Safety Council in an effort to make the roadways safe , pointed out the 5 c’s that were essential if a person wanted to avoid accidents and get from point A-B safely. On an ironical note in 2011 People’s National Congress Reform presidential candidate, Brigadier David Granger, called on the then administration to implement correct policing, rigorous law-enforcement, efficient road engineering and proper licensing of vehicle drivers. He added that the death toll figures were also a warning of the incompetence of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic Administration. The President proposed that the Ministry of Home Affairs could have prevented most road accidents if stringent measures were put in place. . President Granger also referred to a statement by the then Health Minister, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy wherein he stated that road accidents were the seventh leading cause of all deaths. According to the President, Minister Ramsammy pointed out that the real tragedy was that not a single road death should occur since it is something that is preventable.
The more things changed the more they remain the same — same car, same road, same passengers, only a different captain at the helm. The rhetoric must cease. Armed with the blatant facts and figures the President is now called upon to act. What’s the catch; you knew how to solve the problem when it was not on your watch. Now you have the ball – go ahead and make the call. Regardless of the cost no more lives should be lost. It is my fervent wish that drivers will do the nation a good deed by always driving at the right speed.
Yvonne Sam

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