After a lull in fatal road accidents earlier in the year we have once again began to experience a series of horrific accidents on our roadways despite a redoubling of efforts by the police to curb the road carnage.

Last Sunday alone we had four road fatalities from two separate accidents-one at Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo and the other at Friendship, East Bank Demerara. The former snuffing out the lives of two young children while the later resulted in the demise of an elderly couple.

These tragedies came on the heels a series of others over the last few months.

These are some of the headlines of stories on fatal accidents this newspaper carried during this month and July: Vendor killed at: Anandale Market (August 5); Three friends killed in early morning car crash (August 1); Cyclist killed at Liverpool, Corentyne (July 29); Six-year old killed in Corentyne accident; Road fatality at Wismar (July 27); La Jalousie man dies in Crane accident (July 14); taxi driver killed in car, Canter collision (July 8). This makes an incredible total of 13 persons killed on our roads in July and August alone and the latter is not finished as yet.

The immediate pain, suffering, agony and devastation these tragedies cause are immeasurable and unimaginable. However, worse yet is that they leave an indelible emotional/psychological trauma on the loved ones left behind for the rest of their lives, from which many do not recover. Life is too precious for it to be lost in such preventable circumstances but only because of the carelessness, recklessness, callousness and disregard for the safety and well being of others.

Drivers have to be sober, responsible, careful individuals who have care and concern for the lives and limbs of others. Unfortunately, a large proportion of our drivers today do not fit such a description and the result has been continuous loss of lives and limbs at an alarming rate for a population as small as ours.

But while this excruciating road carnage continues to plague us we are still to find a way to curb it. So what is the solution? Some will contend stiffer traffic laws and penalties; some will call for more patrols; some will make a case for better training of drivers; some will urge implementation of greater safety measures on our roads. All of these measures do have merit and collectively will definitely help to stop this carnage on our roads.

However, even with all the above in place if the attitude of road users is not dramatically changed to one of care, consideration and respect for the lives and limbs of our fellow road users then we will get nowhere in curbing this most unfortunate problem.

This carefree and reckless approach to driving is a microcosm of a general descent into lawlessness in our society. When we look around we see the increasing use of indecent language, disrespect for the elderly, boisterousness, vulgarity, discourtesy and ill manners among a host of others.

But changing attitudes is not an easy task especially in today’s society when many attempt to turn wrongs into right and to justify it. Even some of the music today is infected with indecent language, violence and vulgarity.

Changing attitudes in the right direction is not only the responsibility of the government as some are wont to erroneously believe. It has to be the responsibility of the entire society including parents, NGOS, teachers, leaders from all walks of life and individuals etc.

Lawlessness of any sort is a severe impediment to the socio-economic transformation of any society, and if it is not curbed it could become cancerous and destroy the foundation of civilised society. And in this regard we should not be involved in blame throwing but rather every individual and entity should see themselves as agents of positive change as we seek to address the problems of our country and lead it towards the journey of peace, progress and prosperity.

We should take heed of the words of our great national poet Martin Carter: “All are involved, all are consumed”.