A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) has expressed its sorrow at the tragic death of Guyana’s Chief Librarian, Ms. Gillian Thompson, in a road accident on Christmas Eve day.

APNU said this event should serve as a reminder to the Guyana Police Force and the Ministry of Home Affairs of the road deaths of former Commissioner of Police Henry Greene last year and of Constable Shaquille Anderson and Assistant Commissioner Derrick Josiah, during ‘Road Safety Month’ in November this year.
In a statement issued yesterday, APNU said it would like to remind the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration of the Ministry of Health’s National Rehabilitation Services Strategy 2009-2013 which revealed that road accidents were among the top 10 leading causes of death and account for the greatest number of disabilities.
1,563 persons have been killed in traffic accidents in 2002-2012 and over 100 have already been killed for the current year, 2013 – a rough average of nearly a dozen deaths every month.
APNU urges the ruling PPP/C to work diligently to achieve the objectives of the UN’s Global Decade of Action for Road Safety Month 2010-2020 and Guyana National Road Safety Council’s National Road Safety Strategy for 2013-2020.
The main Opposition party suggested that the following steps should be taken, which can save lives and prevent injuries:

* Road safety: Implementation of measures to ensure that roads that run through heavily populated villages are better lit at night, provided with sidewalks and are unencumbered by vendors’ stalls, stray dogs, farm animals and parked or broken-down vehicles. The surfaces of the main roadways – East and West Berbice, East and West Demerara and Linden-Soesdyke – which have deteriorated must be repaired.

* Human safety: Improvement of the safety of the most vulnerable road users – pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists. Some drivers of commercial vehicles and minibuses simply do not have the discipline, skill, experience or temperament to be entrusted with responsibility for human lives on public roads. Many display aggressive behaviour and poor road discipline by driving under the influence of alcohol. Measures must be taken to disqualify incompetent and incorrigible persons from driving taxis and buses.

* Vehicle safety: Inspection of newly imported motor vehicles must be carried out to ensure that the minimum global safety accessories and features are adopted. There are now about 80,000 vehicles on Guyana’s roads and their safety performance must be rigorously re-assessed.

* Road safety management: Increased and sustained enforcement of road safety laws and standards is necessary to improve road user behaviour. Police enforcement operations such as ‘Operation Safeway’ and ‘Operation Road Order’ quickly degenerated into the arrests of hundreds of petty offenders without stopping the spiralling toll of fatalities. Responses to excessive speeding on the roadways should also include patrolling high-risk zones by day and night; enforcing lower speed limits wherever public roads run through populous rural communities; ensuring that minibuses and other commercial vehicles carry the lawful complement of cargo or passengers; banning distracting music and movies from minibuses and prohibiting the sale of intoxicating beverages in or near to public transportation terminals.

* Human safety response: Introduction of improved emergency care and pre-hospital services for victims of accidents by establishing a national ambulance service and training a corps of first responder emergency care assistants.