ON YESTERDAY’s front page of our newspaper, one of the headlines read, “At Maria’s Delight… Driver dies on the spot in freak minibus accident.” The story was about a minibus accident on Maria’s Delight Public Road on the Essequibo Coast in Region 2, which killed 26-year old Safraz Rahim. Initial reports suggest that Rahim who was driving the vehicle, was an unlicensed, inexperienced driver, and that at the time of the accident, he was driving too fast.

This accident and resultant death is just one of many deaths reported weekly in the media. In fact, according to acting Guyana National Road Safety Council (GNRSC) Chairman Major General (retired), who was speaking on Thursday evening during the graduation ceremony of GTI, the total road fatalities for this year 2013 has already passed the 100 mark, which is way more than the corresponding period in 2012.
This is especially ironic, considering that November is the GNRSC’s designated Road Safety Month when they step up all activities countrywide to create greater awareness among the general public, especially drivers and pedestrians.
When he spoke at an event on October 31 to kick off the awareness campaign for this month, Major-General McLean introduced the theme for this year as, “Alcohol, speed and inattentiveness cause accidents. Drive wisely to save lives”.
At the same event,, McLean also stated that this year they are again putting more emphasis on education through training. Hence, he appealed to everyone to consider the heavy toll road accidents exact on those they affect, including deaths, injuries and damage to vehicles.
So what are the causes of high road accidents?
“More than 90 percent of road accidents are caused by human error. We, therefore, have to focus on people in our traffic safety programmes,” with the “objective of stimulating good (driving) behaviour,” says Bob Joop Goos, chairman of the International Organisation for Road Accident Prevention.
The problem of high road accidents and fatalities is not only a Guyanese problem. It is a world-wide problem as Mr. Bob Joop Goos stated. Furthermore, it is a human behavioural problem which cannot only be solved by education. There has to be an educational and awareness component, but there also has to be a rigorous enforcement component. Most of us recognise that one of the causes of accidents is speed. However, simply telling someone about the consequences of speed and urging them to slow down is unlikely to bring about the desired result. It is very likely that this person will continue with that behaviour until something happens to him or to someone else that will force him or her to think about their actions.
In other words, there have to be consequences as Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan, Commander-in-chief of the Dubai Police explains. He cited an incident where a young man asked for a ‘consideration’ for his traffic violations, which amounted to Dh100,000. “We have reckless young people. I told him to pay his fines. And in full, not in instalments, as a way to teach him a lesson,” Lt Gen Khalfan related. As we see from the example above, people pay attention only when something happens or when they are held accountable.
However, we don’t have to wait until someone is in a car or becomes a driver to hold them accountable, and here’s why. The behaviours that turns someone into an irresponsible driver include impatience and a total disregard for others, and usually starts long before that person gets behind the wheel of a car. It starts in the home and continues in school and in the wider social sphere. So if we’re serious about bringing down the carnage on our roads, then simply putting up a billboard and organising a few media events will not cut it.
It has to be a long-term continuous project that will teach parents to hold their children responsible, by letting them experience the consequences of their actions, whatever they may be. This will bring out qualities such as patience and respect for others, which will over time result in more patient, more considerate drivers. This will not only bring down the road death toll, it will also impact and bring down other undesirable and criminal behaviours.
But it shouldn’t finish there. It should be coupled with tougher law enforcement which will target speeding, drunk and unlicensed drivers, as well as bad driving behaviour, which sometimes happens right in front of a police officer, without being punished. We also have to target motorcyclists who dangerously weave in and out of traffic, but do so without wearing any protective gear, including a helmet, which should be the most basic requirement. Again, all these infringements happen in front of police officers and are not punished.