So far for this year, Guyana has recorded 84 deaths from 77 road accidents up from 64 deaths during the same period last year, vice-chairman of the National Road Safety Council (NRSC) Dennis Pompey says.
At a press briefing on Friday, Pompey said that road accidents are already alarmingly high and are happening throughout the country and not just Georgetown. He said that for this period last year Guyana had recorded 64 deaths from road accidents but for this year, this has jumped to 84 deaths from 77 accidents. The majority of these deaths and accidents occurred in Georgetown with the city accounting for 33 deaths from 30 accidents, the official said.
“Our concern is that we want to appeal to the members of the public that all of us have to play a part in reducing accidents. I’d like to call on all road users to use the road correctly and to assist those young people who are not conscious about what is happening on our roads,” Pompey urged.
Treasurer of the organisation Bruce Haynes attributed a large component of road accidents to established practices of Guyanese. “Habits once formed are difficult to break,” he said. “The only way we can deal with the attitudes is to take the drivers off the road and give them some time to be re-educated about what is required to be done on the road; all categories of road users would have to be targeted.”
Haynes also believes that change must start in the family. In the family, he said, there are numerous categories of road users present. “If you start in the family then you can impact every other road user,” he asserted. “It is rather difficult for you to take every single road user and to put them in one place and to try to re-educate them. So we have to ensure that the consciousness of every single individual is heightened from the family,” he declared.
During the meeting, Shahab Hack, chairman of the West Demerara Road Safety Association, also identified a number of problems fuelling road accidents including speeding and excessive use of alcohol. Though he commended the work of police in the West Demerara area, who he claimed are frequently arresting persons for drunk driving, he opined that more police officers are needed during the weekends to patrol the roads and capture traffic offenders. The weekend, he said, is the time when most accidents occur, most likely due to increased alcohol consumption. The police’s patrols should reflect this, he added.
Hack further said that his association has taken a three-pronged approach to dealing with road accidents: enforcement, education, and road rehabilitation.
Recently, the NRSC embarked on a campaign to improve road safety in a number of areas including the East Bank, East Coast, and West Bank Demerara. These improvements include the painting of more than 100 pedestrian crossings, the erection of new signs, and the clearing of objects that might obstruct a driver’s view.
Corentyne will be targeted soon as part of the initiative.
Coordinator of the NRSC Romona Doorgen disclosed that the body will be advocating for a number of changes including an increased number of speed limit signs erected around the country. She also said that the council will be advocating for more stringent traffic laws. “84 persons died on the road this year; that’s 84 too many,” she said.
