Young pedal cyclists, motorcyclists and pedestrians – aged 20-35 years – account for the majority of road deaths. 172 persons were killed on the roads in the first 40 weeks this year, i.e, over four deaths weekly. Several unsuccessful ‘road safety’ operations – Operation ‘Safeway’; Operation ‘Road Order’; Operation ‘White Knight’; Operation ‘Safe Road’ and Operation Respect the Road – over the years have not curtailed the number of deaths. The deaths of four teenagers in a single accident in West Demerara in August prompted more promises of ‘zero tolerance’.
Former President David Granger, speaking on his weekly programme – The Public Interest – lamented the deaths, damage, disability and financial loss caused by road accidents. He blamed several factors for fatal accidents. These include driving at excessive speeds; driving while drunk; driving by unskilled and unlicensed drivers; driving unroadworthy or unsafe vehicles; and driving without care and attention or while distracted by using mobile phones.
Mr. Granger added that driving on congested and encumbered roadways – without functioning traffic lights; sidewalks; pedestrian ‘Zebra’ crossings or with uneven, potholed, stony or muddy surfaces – accounts for several accidents. Roads that are unlit, obstructed by farm animals, parked or broken-down vehicles and heaps of builders’ waste, mud and sand; roadside markets and vendors’ stalls also pose a danger. Pedestrians, joggers and schoolchildren are at risk when they are forced to compete with buses, dray-carts, lorries, SUVs and other utility vehicles for access.
The Former President expressed the view that the country’s high rate of road deaths is the result of dubious managerial decisions in the Police Force. He cited the fact that, for example, eleven traffic chiefs have been appointed in the last thirteen years. Some, with little experience as traffic officers and expertise in human safety and traffic control, serve a low average of 15 months.
Mr. Granger recommended several measures to improve and save lives on the roads. He felt that there is need for a comprehensive, national road safety strategy – executed through the collaboration of central, regional, municipal councils, NDCs and NGOs. The Road Safety Strategy – developed in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization/ World Health Organization for 2013-2020 as part of the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011-2020) – has lapsed and should be updated and re-introduced.
The Police Traffic Department, at the operational level, should ensure that mobile traffic policemen are deployed to high-risk zones to deter lawlessness and direct the safe flow of traffic, particularly, during the deadliest days and nights – Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Traffic chiefs should be drawn from among educable and trained officers and traffic policemen should be ‘unbribable’ if road deaths are to be reduced.
The former President expressed the view that the State has an obligation to protect citizens’ right to use roadways safely. Human safety on the roads is an urgent, everyday social issue. Much more needs to be done to make our roads safe and to enable children to travel, without risk of disability or of death.
