ONE pervasive issue that has garnered national attention over the past two weeks has been the occurrences of numerous road fatalities, which have led to the gruesome loss of too many lives. With all that has happened, I can only stress that drivers exercise more caution on the roadways and that other road users be very wary of their presence on the roadways as well.

As of December 1, 12 persons, including two children, had lost their lives due to road accidents occurring every single day from November 24 to then. These accidents were not concentrated in Georgetown, or any one part of Guyana, but were spread across the counties and all pointed to speeding as one of the causative factors.

It seemed plain unfortunate, and ironic, that these accidents occurred in the final days of Road Safety Awareness Month (observed annually in November). Moreover, it is important to note that at the beginning of this month, the National Road Safety Council highlighted that there was a decrease in road accidents and deaths for this year, so far, when compared to last year. In 2018, it was reported that 85 road accidents were recorded, resulting in 98 road deaths, including three children included. At the beginning of November, a total of 80 road accidents were recorded with 91 road deaths, including six children. By the end of November, these figures clearly rose dramatically.

What could cause this? In such a short span of time, how could so many lives be lost? The answer to these questions, to a large extent, has been speeding. Earlier this year, Traffic Chief Superintendent Linden Isles indicated that speeding and drunk driving accounts for 75 percent of all road accidents. And over these past few weeks, it has been reported that speeding was the cause of almost all of these accidents.

Road accidents are not uncommon in Guyana; growing up, I have seen numerous campaigns launched and undertaken in an attempt to curb the occurrences of these. But, it would appear as though the occurrence of road accidents is quite a pervasive issue.

More personally, I’ve become a bit more sensitive to road accidents due to my experience earlier this year when seven-year-old Ciara Benjamin was pinned down by the truck on the median at Agricola, on the East Bank of Demerara. That incident raised concerns as to whether speeding was the cause of the accident or pedestrian negligence in using the roadways (and not using the nearby pedestrian crossing). Later, in September, the driver of the truck that caused the death of the little one was charged for causing the death of the child after it was found that he was driving at a fast rate when he lost control of the vehicle. He was arraigned, but pleaded not guilty to the charge and was subsequently released on bail for the time being. Notice here, it was made known that the driver was proceeding at a fast rate.

It is my opinion that “speeding” is just the overarching problem that is underpinned by several other causative factors. The World Health Organisation (WHO) lends credence to my belief since it has outlined that speeding may be affected by driver-related factors, such as age, gender, alcohol level (drinking and driving is another issue in Guyana!) and the number of people in the vehicle. Speeding may be affected by the road layout, surface quality, vehicular power and even adverse weather conditions. Effectively, what this shows is that speeding can be caused by several factors, and that also means that accidents can be caused by several factors.

Cognisant of all of this, it becomes imperative to exercise a bit more caution on the roadways- whether you are a driver, passenger or pedestrian. It seems overly simple to encourage people to just slow down, or encourage those around them to drive a bit more cautious, but it is really that simple. I reached out to my loved ones and I encourage you all to do the same; encourage people to slow down on the roadways, if they’re driving, and ask that others be wary when otherwise travelling.