Dear Editor,
We were horrified to hear of yet another victim of an ambulance driver’s reckless driving yesterday. The person is seriously injured from all news reports. All of us who use the roads in Guyana have been witness to the utter recklessness of ambulance drivers. This cohort of drivers seems to believe that they are immune to all traffic laws that govern the rest of us. The traffic police need to intervene as does the Ministry of Health and the Georgetown Hospital. Every ambulance is expected to have trained paramedics on board to render emergency assistance, and therefore no ambulance should have to be racing around, imperiling the lives of all who are using the roads at that time.
No such reckless haste is ever exhibited by ambulance drivers in developed countries. I have yet to see an ambulance speeding and not observing traffic rules in New York City, for instance. The ambulances in Guyana, not only drive at dangerous speeds but also liberally use their sirens, even though there may be no traffic in the middle of the night on our roads. Their supervisors need to reign them in, to improve safety on our already accident-prone roads and help to reduce the noise nuisance, which doesn’t seem to concern anyone presently.
Sincerely,
Dr. Madhu P. Singh,
Dr. Balwant Singh’s Hospital Inc.
