…as part of efforts to stop road carnage
…Traffic plans finalised for 2020

THE Guyana Police Force (GPF) will today launch an aggressive road safety operation today code named “Safe Road” in all 10 administrative regions.

The operation comes following a meeting on Saturday with the Commissioner of Police, Leslie James, and all traffic heads countrywide. The meeting was held in the Commissioner’s Conference Room, Eve Leary. In the meeting, the Traffic Chief presented two Power Point presentations, highlighting traffic plans for 2020 and plans to deal with current traffic issues respectively.

Coming out from the meeting, a decision was taken to launch operation “Safe Road” which will commence from 06:00hrs on Sunday, December 15, 2019 across the 10 administrative regions.

President David Granger, last month, described as “insane” the recent increase of road accidents over the past few weeks. Speeding and alcohol were the main factors which led to 21 persons being killed in November.

There is a fix, according to the President; the police force, road safety bodies, civil societies and others will have to play a role to make the roads safer.
The issue of road safety has been a headliner in recent weeks, as public outrage rose over a number of accidents, many of them due to carelessness and speed. The blame was laid at the feet of especially bus drivers (many of them young) and taxi drivers. The accusations were that many of them were paying bribes for their driver’s licences.

THREAT TO HUMAN SAFETY
President Granger made it clear that he is distressed by the deaths, disabilities and injuries and damage to property caused by accidents on the roads.
According to the President, road accidents represent a threat to human safety. “Every accident is one too many; every death is too great a loss that our country cannot afford. The record is grave: Young persons between the ages of 16 and 42 years comprised more than three out of every five fatalities.”

According to President Granger, he had proposed a three-point approach to road safety in an address at the launch of Road Safety Month, on the 4th of November 2015. The three-point approach involved more stringent enforcement of the traffic laws, including those driving under the influence of alcohol; playing distracting music and the use of cellular phones while driving.

According to the President, stricter enforcement will help to promote greater safety on the roads with regular and rigorous patrols of notorious, high-risk zones conducted during daylight and at night.

He noted that that speed limits and limitations on the lawful complement of cargo and passengers by commercial and public transportation vehicles, must be established. The Head of State also called for greater road safety education through a systematic and sustained countrywide campaign to be conducted.
With regards to the problematic driver’s licence system, the President had called for the process to be strengthened to ensure that only competent and responsible persons are certified to drive vehicles.

President Granger said that no-parking zones and bus stops must be marked; traffic signals should be maintained in working condition and traffic policemen must be deployed at high-risk zones to deter lawlessness and direct the safe flow of traffic on urban and rural roadways during peak hours and, particularly, during the most deadly days and nights – Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

“I urge all road-users to observe the Guyana Police Force’s code of behaviour – care, caution, consideration, common sense and courtesy – as they drive on our roadways. I am confident that the government, police force, non-governmental organisations – such as regional road safety associations – and civil society could combine their efforts to make road use safe for everyone,” the President had noted.

BRIGHT LIGHTS
Additionally, the National Road Safety Council (NRSC) has noted the increased use of bright lights by drivers and has said that this is responsible for many of the road accidents which happened recently. In an interview with this newspaper, Head of NRSC, Ramona Doorgen, called on motorists to show consideration for others who are using the roadways by dimming their lights where possible.

“You don’t have to drive with your bright lights all the time; you can dim your lights. Try to consider the drivers that are coming from the other end, so you wouldn’t be driving with your bright lights in anybody’s face,” she advised.

She spoke especially in the context of the recent spate of fatal accidents in the country. “We are still encouraging persons to slow down; the weather sometimes is very bad. When we visited the hospitals and saw some of the survivors of road crashes, one of the excuses we got was that they saw a bright light coming, and it was so bright that that’s how they got into the accident,” she recalled.

Speeding and driving under the influence, however, remain the top factors causing accidents, Doorgen said. “Definitely speeding is the major cause and the major factor causing road crashes; a lot of inattentiveness. If people start to slow down, I think we would have a reduction in road accidents.”

She added that in many cases, exercising common sense was all that was needed to prevent an accident. “You know, it really, really bothers me. Why are we not adhering to what we learned while we were driving? Commonsense can tell us sometimes; simple negligence is causing these road accidents.”

She added that road safety is an individual responsibility as everyone should caution a driver who is speeding or drunk. She also called on the churches to do more. “We’re calling on the churches to step up. They’ve taken a back seat for too long. They have to start to promote road safety in the churches, whether Muslim or Hindu.” Doorgen said the overhead crossings, pedestrian crossing, traffic lights, and other facilities by the government must be used according to the rules that are governing them. Every year, the Police’s Traffic Department and the NRSC would dedicate the last week in November towards the awareness of road safety. During this period, numerous campaigns are launched across the country to educate the public about the importance of using the road in a safe manner. However, Road Safety Week 2019 came to a horrific end and has proven to be one of the deadliest weeks for the year so far.