-Minister Rohee responds
MINISTER of Home Affairs Mr. Clement Rohee yesterday dismissed statements made by APNU’s presidential candidate Mr. David Granger with regard to the country’s traffic situation as “mere rantings” with the aim of misleading the public into believing the Government is doing nothing to address this issue.
The minister, in a release, stated that, “in an attempt to score some cheap political points, Granger takes a global issue and simplistically remodels it into a local political one.”
He maintains that Granger’s analysis is conjectural and lacks the facts which would indicate that Guyana’s performance in addressing the road traffic situation is commendable and not deserving of this caricature.
According to a World Health Organisation (WHO) report, road traffic accidents are of epidemic proportions in most regions of the world and that it results in the death of about 1.2 million people yearly; while about 50 million suffer non-fatal injuries.
In low-income countries, the traffic rate as reported by WHO is 21.5 per 100,000 population and 19.5 per 100,000 population for middle-income countries.
In Guyana for 2009 and 2010, the traffic death rates were 15.6 and 15.3 per 100,000 population respectively.
“Mr. Granger should recognise that both of these figures are lower than the average traffic death rates for low-income and middle-income countries. Hence Guyana’s efforts show commendable results,” the minister affirmed.
Granger also insinuated that the current road fatalities are due mainly to Government’s inability “to implement correct policies, rigorous law-enforcement, efficient road engineering and proper licensing of vehicle drivers.”
Government has remained consistent in its efforts to ensure proper road infrastructure, road markings, and signage as part of its road safety thrust. This has seen over $8.7B being allocated in 2009 to improve the country’s roads and bridges. A further $1.7B has been expended on the rehabilitation and maintenance of urban, rural and hinterland roads across the country.
Additionally, an $87M project has been implemented for the improvement of road pavements. This included sidewalks, road and bridge widening, construction of foot bridges, reflectorised road studs have been fitted along major sections of roadways and improved signage.
Resources have also been utilised for traffic and street lighting and bus stops, especially, in the city have been marked out and works are ongoing on the clearing of all non – traffic related articles such as abandoned vehicles, vendors stalls, piles of sand and construction waste.
With regard to stray animals on the roadways, Minister Rohee said that the implementation of the stray catcher programme is aimed at reducing traffic accidents and has since led to the impounding of 724 animals.
Moreover, the police, particularly traffic ranks, have been proactive in utilising traffic education programmes to reduce deaths on the roadways. Various public information tools have been utilized including: road safety information in the media, public forums engaging school children and activities hosted by the National Road Safety Council (NRSC).
With regard to licensing of drivers, a holistic approach is taken, whereby candidates are required to demonstrate both theoretical and practical competencies. This process saw an overall success rate of 76 percent for candidates undertaking both assessments last year.
Coupled with these interventions, Government has also put in place a strong legislative framework, these include:
* Summary Jurisdiction (Offences) (Amendment) Act 2008, Act No. 15 of 2008, which prohibits the playing of music in mini buses or hire cars.
* Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic (Amendment) Act 2008, Act No. 12 of 2008, which restricts the use of hand-held mobile telephones while driving and the
* Evidence and Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic (Amendment) Act 2008, Act No. 10 of 2008, which provides for the use of breathalyzers and taking of blood specimens.
In October 2007, the Guyana Police Force launched a proactive initiative under the appellation ‘Operation Safeway’, which is a zero-tolerance programme aimed at strengthening enforcement of traffic regulations. An evaluation indicated this programme has been able to reduce traffic deaths by 20 per cent and traffic accidents by 17.4 per cent thus far.
As it relates to enforcement statistics, the traffic department has made a total of 35,096 cases this year. This includes 7,660 for speeding, 939 for breach of condition of road service licence, 579 for driving under the influence of alcohol, 377 for using cell phones while driving, and 272 for breach of traffic light.
Responding to Granger’s claims that the United States (US) report presented driving in Guyana as hazardous and that the traffic death rate in Guyana is 70 percent higher than in that country, the Home Affairs Minister said that, “comparative statistics would reveal the fallacy of his (Granger’s) analysis and his sole intent to dupe the Guyanese public.”
The 2008 WHO’s Global Status Report on Road Safety gives the traffic death rate for the United States as 13.9 per 100,000 population. This means that in terms of percentage, Guyana’s rate was only seven percent higher than that of the US, which the minister said is a good performance for a country at this stage of development.
With regards to non-fatal road traffic injuries, the rate for the US was 13.1 per 1,000 registered vehicles compared to Guyana’s rate of 10.6 per 1000 registered vehicles, 24 percent lower.
The minister assures that Government is not oblivious to traffic death on the country’s roadways, neither is it resigned to the fact that road traffic deaths is one of the inevitable consequences of development.
Nevertheless, Government is deeply concerned about the wanton loss of lives on the roadways and remains determined to implement a comprehensive programme to deal with this issue.   (GINA)