POLICE Traffic Officer, Senior Superintendent Brian Joseph told attendees at the first general planning meeting of Guyana National Road Safety Council (GNRSC) yesterday, that they would be failing in their duty to reduce road deaths by not reporting offenders. Addressing the gathering, at Grand Coastal Inn, Le Ressouvenir, East Coast Demerara, he said the vision of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) is to be a world class Traffic Department, with a people friendly, responsive and professional workforce ensuring safety for all categories of road users.
Joseph said a significant percentage of road accidents take place due to drivers’ faults and, in that respect, their expectation is that road users would need to change their attitude, follow traffic rules and adopt simple road safety measures.
He urged: “We need to implant the basics of road safety in young minds and promote an improvement in behaviour on our roadways, if we are to avoid accidents and save lives. This is the principal expectation of the Traffic Department. But this would not be achievable if we are not cognisant of several factors associated with road safety and traffic laws enforcement.
“It is true that multiple measures lead drivers to comply with traffic laws and regulations and these include penalties, adjudication and engineering. High penalties tend to communicate a higher degree of importance and compliance with a particular law and, consequently, reduced incidence of certain offences. How the courts treat offenders and repeat offenders affects the impact of actual enforcement actions against road traffic violations.”

Supportive media
Joseph said another factor involves supportive media coverage, which tends to affect the perception and compliance of the public and the impact of enforcement interventions.
He added that the GPF expects legal compliance will not exist in a vacuum but would be complemented by appropriate engineering and, on roads built wide and straight, drivers tend to drive faster regardless of the posted speed limit.
Joseph said, on the other hand, when a road is not properly surfaced, not free of encumbrances, there is the danger of drivers swerving to avoid potholes or other hazards and coming into contact with other road users, sometimes fatally.
He acknowledged that none of these measures will achieve absolute success if the human element in drivers, pedestrians and other actors are not addressed and they do not comply with traffic safety objectives and expectations.
The Traffic Officer pointed out that some motorists will adhere to the law because they know that is what they should be doing, while others do it to avoid the potential of being involved in an accident.
Yet others are lawful because they perceive a risk of receiving a ticket or summons for the violation.
He noted that still others will obey because of the physical design and/or conformity to the vehicle patterns around them while yet another group will not regardless of what is done.

Be combined
Joseph said that compliance, therefore, must be combined with safe vehicles, proper road engineering, adequate road maintenance, sufficient driver training and a host of other efforts to optimise safety while accomplishing the required traffic operations.
He said the police expect that citizens would help them by reporting problem areas, aggressive or impaired drivers and by complying with the rules of the road.
In that regard, they support the right of the public to refuse to board an overloaded taxi or bus; decline to travel in an unroadworthy taxi or bus; sit in your own seat and wear a seat belt; be driven by a licensed driver; be driven by a sober driver; refuse to ride in a speeding taxi or bus and report taxi or bus abuses to the Traffic Department hotline.
Welcoming the gathering, Ms. Ramona Doorgen said that the meeting was to put forward GNRSC newer ideas to promote road safety.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the East Bank Road Safety Association, Mr. Eric Benjamin outlined the objectives, while Mr. Colvern Venture, GNRSC Treasurer talked about the role of the GNRSC.
Presenting his report, GNRSC Chairman, Mr. Nigel Erskine said the United Nations Decade of Action Challenge, to which Guyana is a signatory, established the fact that road accidents are a major public health problem around the world.
He reported that 1.3 million people are killed and 50 million are injured every year as a result of road accidents and the figure will increase by 65 percent if efforts are not made to promote road safety.
Erskine revealed that, for this year, Guyana has recorded 42 deaths from 39 road accidents in which two children also lost their lives.
In comparison, Guyana ranked third regionally as it relates to the fatality statistics.
The GNRSC Chairman also said they will continue with the Schools’ Safety Patrols in which 300 schools benefitted and, so far, they have established 10 Road Safety Councils across the country including at Mahdia, Linden and Bartica.
There was also a presentation on the constitution, by GNRSC member Mr. Earl Lambert and the one-day programme also entailed a detailed discussion in which groups were formed to discuss several issues surrounding road safety, too.