MY heart is once again filled with grief for the victims of the latest carnage on our roads although I have never met or known any of them. I am also extremely angry at the authorities for not taking any practical measures to rein in the murderers on our roads.
It would appear to me that the above mentioned officials are either unconcerned about deteriorating situation on our roads or that they are so incompetent that they cannot come up with practical, low cost and effective solutions to a situation that is claiming the lives of innocent people almost on a daily basis. The result is more loss of innocent lives on our roads, increased corruption among traffic cops, to name a few.
I recall reading in the Guyana Chronicle on November 9, 2010, after one of the most horrific accidents in Guyana, the Home Affairs Minister saying that something like $5M will be spent on educating the public on road safety. Of course nothing ever seemed to have happened and the latest accident just proved how correct my first thought was.
One of the first questions that came to my mind then was “can you teach a dog to sing?” While the answer is obvious to most of us, it seems to me that this is not so obvious to the Traffic Department, the Traffic Chief and others. Are we now once again going to hear that the Traffic Department will be embarking on yet another massive education programme by trying to educate the impossible to educate? This will be yet another waste of millions in time and money. And what about that Mother in Black organisation that got a national award? They must now prove to the nation that they really deserve that award. Did they really make an impact on the continued lawlessness on our roads?
* Recommend to the President to grant duty free concession for the importation of ‘Car Cams’ that is cameras for vehicles. These are cameras which decent and law-abiding citizens can mount/install in their vehicles for their own protection. Recording of accidents will save time and money. There will be conclusive evidence and no prolong court matters. The innocent will not suffer because the guilty has police friends or because the vehicle belongs to a police, his friend or family or have the money to pay corrupt cops.
* Encourage insurance companies to give discounts to persons who install cameras in their vehicles. The insurance companies actually stand to gain a whole lot. The Insurance Association and National Road Safety Council can lobby all out for this if they are really interested in saving lives and property on our roads. Not to mention the Mothers in Black who have so far failed miserably in making a dent on the lawlessness on our roads. They now have an opportunity to justify that National Award they received.
* For a start, make it compulsory for all public transport vehicles (buses, and hire cars) to have dashboard cameras installed in them.
* Make car cams a compulsory piece of accessory for all vehicles and phased it in like the phasing in of the yellow cabs.
* Bring reckless driving under the crime stoppers programme by encouraging the public to take and submit footages for monetary rewards. Decent people must be able to make some honest money out of these rouges.
* Make it mandatory for any person who wants to employ a driver to require that person to produce a police clearance and make it an offence to employ a person as a driver who was convicted of a serious traffic breach during the last three to five years.
* Make it mandatory for every body-work shop to be licensed and the requirement that a police and insurance clearance must be obtained before any work can be done on any motor vehicle. Make it a harshly punishable crime for any body-work shop owner to conduct any such work without a valid clearance. This will solve the problem of hit and run accidents. This requirement exists in many countries.
* Every passenger in any speeding vehicle should be charged along with the driver since most times it is the passengers who encourage the speeding.