POLICE statistics reveal that between January and November this year, law enforcement officers made a total of 50,715 cases against motorists for breaching the traffic laws. Speeding accounted for 21,576 of these cases. The Guyana Police Force (GPF) yesterday disclosed that speeding was the leading cause for fatalities resulting from accidents. For the same period, 43 persons were killed as a result of speeding from a total of 112 accidents.
Meanwhile, despite the recent spate of accidents, fatalities were down by 14% this year, compared to the same period last year. One hundred and thirty deaths resulting from accidents were reported last year for the same period, compared to 112 this year, while the number of fatal accidents was reduced by 21%.
The figures also show that pedestrians lead the category of road users who have lost their lives – 40 out of 112. In addition, private cars were found to be the category of vehicle responsible for the most fatalities, with 48 out of 120.
Police ‘A’ Division recorded the highest number of road fatalities – 35 out of 112. ‘B’ and ‘C’ Divisions were second with 28 each, while Division ‘F’ recorded one.
With the Guyana Police Force’s Traffic Department upping its enforcement activities to ensure safe and proper usage of the roadways, Traffic Chief Dion Moore noted that every accident that occurred was one too many on the country’s roadways, whether serious or not.
According to the Chief, speeding continued to be the number one contributory factor to accidents. As such, he was working to have this addressed. Moore added that another area of concern was drink driving. However, he outlined that one of the enforcement strategies adopted to address this is the breathalyser test. Moreover, he explained that a task force was established and is currently working in four police divisions – ‘A’ (Georgetown-East Bank Demerara); ‘B’ (Berbice); ‘C’ (East Coast Demerara); and ‘D’ (West Demerara-East Bank Essequibo).
Moore noted that the task force had been doing an excellent job, and with continued public support, a lot more could be done to ensure that the country’s roadways were safe for all the users, as well as to ensure traffic ranks maintain a high level of professionalism.