After Sunday fatal accidents…
POLICE Traffic Chief Neil Semple has, again, appealed to drivers, passengers and  pedestrians to all use the roads with caution.

His appeal followed two more fatal accidents, one in which Rudolph Joseph, 37, a pedestrian was killed by an out-of-control pick-up at Swan.

The Sunday night victim lived at One Mile, Kuru Kuru, also along Soesdyke/Linden Highway.
Senior Superintendent Semple told the Guyana Chronicle his department cannot over-emphasise the need for people to speak out when the driver of a vehicle, in which they are travelling, is speeding.

He said speeding and inattentiveness are two leading contributors to fatal accidents and urged people to also desist from using their cellular phones while driving.

Semple said, if the driver must take a cell phone call, the correct thing to do is to pull off the roadway or use a bluetooth, which is hands free.

He pointed out that driving and talking on the cell phone poses a distraction for the driver who may not be fully attentive and cause an accident, which could result in a death.

Semple said ongoing campaigns by traffic ranks countrywide target persons who speed, drink and drive and talk while driving, for which the breathalyser is being used.

He especially exhorted minibus passengers to protest when the drivers are speeding or make notes of the vehicles’ licence numbers and report to the nearest Police station, for the necessary action to be taken.

“Do not wait until the minibus is involved in an accident to report the instances of speeding, ” Semple advised.

The other fatality, on Sunday night, was recorded about 19:50 h when the driver of the speeding vehicle lost control, after swerving from a hole on the road and ended up on the other side of the highway, hitting Joseph and killing him.

The driver was taken into Police custody, assisting with investigations.

For this year, so far, Semple said there were 25 road accidents in which 25 persons were killed and, for the corresponding period last year, 28 persons lost their lives in 27 accidents.
In another Sunday accident, cyclist Ramesh Persaud, 19, of Railway View, Meten-Meer-Zorg, died after a motor car struck him.

At the time, he was towing Christopher Gittens, 15, of the same village, but rode into the path of the vehicle at about 00:30 h, Police said.

Persaud and Gittens were taken to Leonora Cottage Hospital, also on West Coast Demerara, where the former succumbed to his injuries and the latter was transferred to  Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH).
The driver of that ill-fated vehicle, is in custody, too.