Dear Editor,
The road carnage will continue on the Essequibo Coast; the main causes of death and injury are speeding, and drinking and driving. Some drivers kill people as a consequence of inexperience, or just plain recklessness. The main carriageway of the coast road is too narrow for two vehicles to overtake one another; in addition, the speed limits I have seen in highly residential areas need to be changed.
During school hours in the morning and afternoon, you can see minibuses and cars speeding with passengers. The design of this road is not safe; it needs wider shoulders for the safety of pedestrians. Some drivers are extremely impatient to drop off their passengers and make more money; some do it without thinking about people’s lives. I observed many times that drivers are speeding through my narrow street going in and out with schoolchildren and teachers; this is a dangerous practice.
This street and many more need road humps to make these operators drive at a slow speed. On the main highway there are several pedestrian crossings marked on the road in front of schools for schoolchildren and others to cross the road safely, but drivers never stop at these signs; they will drive at full speed when passing. I know when Commander Johnson was stationed here at ‘G’ Division, every school had a traffic policeman or woman to control the traffic in the morning and afternoon.
Now you hardly see a traffic policeman at the busy junction at Cotton Field, where the entire Ministry of Education department is located, as well as Cotton Field secondary, nursery and the Guyana School of Agriculture, etc. In the night it is worse, because some drivers deliberately shine their bright lights in your face. These are the ones who are most dangerous, because some will flash their headlights in an effort to move you, but of course there is nowhere to go as you are in the process of overtaking and there is no room to pull into the corner.
I am saddened by the loss of the two young boys whom I knew personally by a hit and run drunken driver at Richmond on the Essequibo Coast. Speed and drinking are the single biggest factors contributing to road deaths in our country. I think the traffic policemen should be more vigilant on the Essequibo road during the day and night; during the rainy season you don’t see them on the road patrolling.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan
