Dear Editor,
Driving in Guyana stinks to the high heavens, and I am making that sweeping statement about the conduct of drivers on the roads. There is no question in my mind, and I am sure it is the view of countless others of readers, that this is exactly so. You cannot tell me that a driver who flippantly disregards a pedestrian on a zebra crossing, strikes that pedestrian down and still be driving? Yes, this is the sad state of affairs in a place called Guyana. In my scheme of things that would have been his last day on the road. As someone rightly said, in Guyana when you hear the sound of a vehicle – pedestrian on crossing or not – you better get out of the way. Only on Guyana’s roads can someone be struck stone cold and nothing is done about it. It is called vehicular homicide and this is the sad state of our roads in Guyana. They have become veritable death traps. With regard to the afore mentioned point, driving instructors instruct the student driver that when you see a person on a pedestrian crossing you stop and allow that person to cross. However, in the Guyanese context you see a pedestrian at a crossing, it is time to rev up your engine and warn the pedestrian to get out of the way, or else!
Now this brings into focus some very important factors namely, (a) some of the drivers on our roads are not certified road users, meaning some of our drivers are not qualified to be behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. Or if they are registered as certified, it was not legally obtained. And this has been a bugbear in our society for some time now. This matter has to be addressed as a matter of urgency. (b) Secondly, there should be penalties administered to those who misuse our driving codes. In many instances it is not just a fine but the total revocation of their drivers’ licenses. Period, end of discussion! The users of our roads, that is, both drivers as well as pedestrians, ought to feel safe when using our roads (c) The police needs to do their work. Now, on this point I will touch on the general sentiments held by most of us, that the police are not doing their jobs properly. While I agree with such sentiments, you must also be cognizant of the fact that when those same persons have broken the law they “praise” the law officers for letting them off the hook. So, my question is who or what should be the police’s role in all of this and it comes back to my point – the police needs to carry out its function without fear or favour irrespective of who the persons are. This is the only way we will bring back sanity to our roads.
Guyana is at the present moment upgrading our roads as well as building newer, wider and bigger highways. If the present lawlessness continues, then these new thoroughfares will become killing fields of the future. This cannot be allowed, we cannot continue like this! So, I call on the ministry so designated to carefully look into this topic of nation building. I say nation building because as our country develops, investors and locals alike must feel safe when traversing our roadways. Accidents and other road infractions are a deterrent to nation building. Let us stop the madness now!
Sincerely,
Neil Adams
