In September of 2016, the Guyana Police Force launched “Operation Safeway” – a road safety initiative that was intended to positively impact the road safety environment in Guyana. Just over a week after the launching of this campaign, the GPF reported the arrest of 356 persons for speeding and 41 persons for DUI. However, there was no mention as to how this large number of persons was expected to be processed through our already overburdened and inefficient court system.
In an editorial on Operation Safeway, we opined that the GPF must move past the reactionary approach to the traffic situation in Guyana and become focused on prevention rather than irregular and ineffective prosecution.
But in October 2016, just one month after the launch of Operation Safeway, the GPF reacting to perceived public scepticism declared Operation Safeway a success and rebuked criticism of the initiative pointing to reductions in all types of accidents, and announcing that Operation Safeway was “here to stay.”
We are currently in the second quarter of 2017 and there is nothing to show that Operation Safeway was successful in significantly reducing the incidence of traffic accidents since it was launched. A visit to the GPF website did not turn up any information on Operation Safeway, so as to further aid in assessing its success or otherwise. Indeed, there continues to be the regular reports in the news media of traffic accidents involving loss of lives, serious physical and psychological injury, and damage to property.
Despite the GPF’s haste to put down internal criticism of its handling of the traffic situation in Guyana, the critical analysis coming from the US State Department’s Overseas Security Advisory Council is not flattering. In its 2017 Crime and Safety Report on Guyana, and in relation to the traffic safety environment it had the following to say in its Advisory to US citizens contemplating travel to Guyana.
“Roads are rarely maintained, and street lighting is sporadic. Vehicle accidents are very common, and accidents involving pedestrians are also very common. Traffic enforcement is rare to non-existent. Traffic accidents are a major concern in Georgetown, with speeding and driving under the influence of alcohol contributing factors. Road and driving conditions are poor. Police sporadically enforce local traffic laws, and local drivers often drive recklessly. Stop signs and traffic signals are often ignored. Drivers should remain very cognizant of other cars, large commercial vehicles, mini-buses, horse-drawn carts, bicycles, mopeds, scooters, motorcycles, stray dogs, sleeping animals, free range livestock, and pedestrians, as they all share narrow, poorly maintained roads. Few roads have sidewalks.”
A careful reading of the above quote would find an indictment of the GPF, the City of Georgetown, the Government through the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, and the road users themselves – although in some cases the road users may be actual victims of the poor infrastructure and traffic control systems that exist currently in Guyana.
Despite the wasteful and avoidable loss of lives that occurs in Guyana on our roadways each week, there seems to be little, if any, political will to put traffic safety on the front burner, and to plan and implement a comprehensive overhaul of our traffic control environment in Georgetown, and in Guyana as a whole. Such a plan would have to address the condition and design of roads, the instituting of a network of paved sidewalks, traffic medians, traffic lights, and other traffic control mechanisms.
Such a plan would have to address the GPF’s Traffic Department and its own internal systems, mechanisms and resources. Such a plan would of necessity see the specialised training of traffic policemen in everyday traffic management techniques, response to traffic accidents and basic treatment of the injured pending arrival of medical personnel, accident scene preservation and investigation, report writing and giving evidence before the Courts, and not least a proper working knowledge of the Traffic Laws of Guyana.
The Government’s role in tandem with the City of Georgetown and local authorities throughout the country would be to enhance the system of roadways, streets, and pedestrian walkways utilising modern design concepts, and quality materials and construction methods. It has sadly become par for the course for substandard repair works to be done on roads and streets, which deteriorate in no time at all, requiring more repair works to be done, seemingly ad infinitum.
The use of traffic medians as a form of traffic control can also add to the beauty of the surroundings if properly done, and modern traffic lights with appropriate settings and sensors can all aid the proper flow of traffic in and around the city, towns and villages.
The important thing to note here is that a proper system of traffic control tends to favourably influence the majority of road users, and the state of orderliness and the presence of physical traffic control measures will enhance compliance among all categories of road users.
This is not to say that errant drivers and careless pedestrians will then be a thing of the past – hardly so. But the point being made here is that the physical layout of our roadways, streets and pavements, together with the applicable traffic control methods such as medians, pavements, curb extensions, pedestrian islands, speed bumps and humps, and signs visible both day and night, will go a long way to reducing the mayhem that has for too long been the daily experience of road users in Guyana.
The obvious countervailing argument to all this will centre on the availability or lack of funding and, more importantly, the political will to achieve all this within any government’s five-year term of office – before fresh elections and a potential change in government leads to the stagnation or overturn of such a large scale initiative.
This takes us to the troubling question of whether our politicians can ever put aside their narrow, selfish objectives to pursue and sustain what is good for Guyana regardless of which side is in tgovernment.
Is there no development that is politically neutral in this country?
