Dear Editor,
The snuffing out of twelve precious lives on the No 19 Public Road on the afternoon of Friday, October 29, 2010 rams home the point of how deadly the mundane business of commuting on Guyana’s roads can be. The Central Corentyne Chamber of Commerce expresses heartfelt condolences to the families of those who perished in that tragedy.
Will it be business as usual once the shock and horror of the tragedy of October 29 subsides? Will the carnage on Guyana’s roads continue? Unless there is a sea change in the traffic culture that currently obtains on Guyana’s roads, it will.
To engender this change, a strong sense of responsibility for one’s own life and the lives of others; patience, thoughtfulness and consideration for others; as well as discipline and care in using the road, need to be entrenched in our attitude and mental make-up.
For the teaching of these values, the home is the obvious place in which to begin. But the school is where the target audience can be reached systematically across the country. The collaborative effort of the PTAs, the Ministries of Education and Home Affairs, UNICEF Guyana, Mothers in Black (we commend these women for not giving up) and the private sector would all be needed to see that such a programme is incorporated into the school curriculum and effectively delivered for both short-term and long-term gains. Now that National Road Safety Month is upon us, it is the opportune time to galvanize ourselves into action.
Yours faithfully,
Krishnanand Raghunandan
Secretary
Central Corentyne Chamber
of Commerce
