The issue of safety on our roads is undoubtedly becoming a matter of greater concern because as living standards rise and people have greater disposable they naturally move towards owning vehicles and the inevitable end result is that the amount of vehicles plying the roadways increases almost on a daily basis and this has become a worldwide phenomenon.

So as roadways become busier they also become more dangerous, especially if drivers and other road users do not observe the basic rules and regulations governing traffic. And that is why road safety is an issue of utmost priority particularly against the backdrop of the large number of accidents and even worse the large number of fatalities or serious injuries that result from these accidents. Of course this could be avoided if only road users, motorists in particular, were careful and observed traffic rules and regulations.

Traffic accident fatalities have grown into a major social issue around the world. Globally, the number of fatalities caused by traffic accidents is estimated at 500,000 a year (1999 IRTAD data). In Japan, accident-caused fatalities have remained roughly constant at 10,000 a year while the number of traffic accidents has grown to about 800,000 per year.

The World Health Organization in 1996 published research (Murray &

Lopez,1996) estimating that in the rank order of leading causes of ” years lost due to death and disability”, road accidents would change from being the 9 th leading cause in the world in 1990 to the 3rd most major cause by 2020.

Developing countries bear the brunt of the fatalities and disabilities from road traffic crashes, accounting for more than 85% of the world’s road fatalities and about 90% of the total disability adjusted life years(DALYs) lost due to road traffic injuries.

The problem is increasing in these countries at a fast rate, while it is declining in all industrialized nations(Odero, 2004).

About 10 percent of global road deaths in 1999 took place in Sub- Saharan Africa where only four percent of global vehicles are registered. Conversely, in the entire developed world, with 60 percent of all globally registered vehicles, only 14 percent of road deaths occurred (Jacop&Aeron-Thomas,2000). However, given the widely recognized problem of under –reporting of road deaths in Africa, the true figures are likely to be much higher.

The annual cost of road crashes is in excess of US$ 500 billion, and in the developing world the estimated cost is about US$ 65 billion each year. A considerable waste of scarce financial (and other) resources, typically costing between one and four per cent of a country’s gross national product per annum (Jacobes et al., 1999).

These statistics are spine-chilling but do no not tell the whole story because the trauma and psychological/emotional damage and agony, which sre sometimes indelible, which these accidents cause are immeasurable.

In Guyana the problem of traffic accidents has become a critical and challenging and according to statistics from the Traffic Department there have been 600 fatalities between 2006 and September of this year. When this is mirrored against our relatively small population this is a very high figure which the Home Affairs Minister has alluded to and expressed his concern.

It has been widely recognised that determined efforts are needed to reverse the terrible traffic culture that has enveloped our country so as to stem the spate of accidents on our roadways.

On this score it was most heartening to note that as we observe Road Safety Month the minister at the launch of the School Road Safety Patrol Booklet, which is a very commendable move, made a most pertinent exhortation when he asserted that school children are important agents for spreading road safety messages to other people. In fact they are important agents of change in general and not only in terms of traffic culture, but he noise nuisance, the use of indecent and vulgar language and so many of the other social ills that are becoming an increasing problem in our society.