Dear Editor,
I watched in horror the surveillance video of the Corporal being crushed to death because of the lawlessness that pervades our society. It is obvious that the pedal cyclist coming in the opposite direction (being on the wrong side of the road) caused her to drift into the truck’s path as her path was blocked by a parked car.
That lady got up that morning and was heading to work to earn a decent living never thinking that her life would have ended so tragically.
Our society has descended into a series of lawlessness. The entire system from the school to the man in the street needs to undergo classes/training in ethics, etiquettes, respect, manners etc in all aspects of life. Social behaviour in all areas of life has degenerated to the point of persons nonchalantly saying “only in Guyana”.
The school system has to start at an early level to introduce this as a subject. Social and Emotional learning is integral at this level if we want to see real changes in the future.
The Police Force needs to change the entry levels from Primary School to Secondary School education with at least 5 subjects including Maths and English at Grade 3. The government has to be strict with officers collecting bribes to pass persons to get driver’s licences. This is one of the dangers as persons don’t know the rules of the road resulting in more accidents. We need more police officers to traverse the roadways and stop mini buses and hire cars from “boring” thus disrupting the smooth flow of traffic and preventing law-abiding citizens from traversing the road ways in peace and order.
The traveling public needs through the media outlets to be taught the rules of the road. You can clearly see that drivers don’t know the rules of how to enter and exit the circles being placed on our roadways. The circles are an excellent idea as it would allow traffic to flow smoothly without allowing a backup for too long.
Pedestrians and pedal cyclists need to learn on which side of the road to walk or ride. Parking on roadways and encumbrances needs to be streamlined along with car parks mushrooming at most entrance to neighbourhoods. The engineers and planners have to keep in mind that if you are going to be developing new neighbourhoods that car parks space needs to be included. When building new roadways take into consideration making turning lanes and leaving enough reserve for future developments. Do not give out the house lots right up to the roads. We see how this can hamper development. Grove is a good example of how difficult it would be to widen that part of the road thus the bottleneck will continue.
And recently there has been an increase in vehicles traversing the roadways with sirens. You pull into the corner because you give way to ambulances, firetrucks and police vehicles. Now you notice that when the vehicles pass it is civilian vehicles that are taking advantage of the use of siren. I hope that this situation can be nipped in the bud quickly before everyone gets one and the situation gets out of control.
My focus today is only on the road aspect of what has to be taught to make our society a more civilized one. There is so much more to be corrected and rectified.
Let’s be the change we would like to see.
Regards,
Saudia Ferouz
