– GNRSC says more needs to be done for safer roads

By Navendra Seoraj
SINCE the year began, the Police Traffic Department has recorded 14 accidents and 15 fatalities, including a child, while there have been 9,804 cases of road traffic offences.However, during a media briefing on Friday, Inspector Audrey Jordan of the Traffic Department stated that the traffic ranks have been working around the clock to ensure that there are safer roads and persons who breach the traffic laws are being arrested and charged.
The number she said, has increased, considering that last year during the same period there were 10 accidents and 11 persons were arrested and charged.
Meanwhile, head of the Guyana National Road Safety Council (GNRSC), Dennis Pompey, stressed that the increase in the number of accidents paints a bad picture for Guyana, because there is a perpetual rise in the number and no sight of a reduction anytime soon.

MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE
Despite the many efforts to reduce the number of accidents, Pompey noted, there has been no good results so far and more needs to be done.
He noted the decision in the General Assembly of the United Nations to declare the period 2011–2020 as the Decade of Action for Road Safety, with the goal of stabilising and then reducing the forecasted level of road-traffic fatalities by 50 per cent around the world, utilising increasing activities conducted at the national, regional and global levels.
Guyana, he said, is nowhere near that target. “We are the 53rd country which has not made any significant reduction since the declaration by the UN.”
During the announcement by the UN, it was also outlined that there will be five pillars which countries should follow in order to ensure the target is met. The pillars are: Road Safety Management; Safer Roads and Mobility; Safer Vehicles; Post-Crash Inspections; and Better Sensitisation Methods.
And while the GNRSC has been following all these guidelines, it is still having problems in reducing accidents, Pompey acknowledged. For instance, he referred to the government’s ban on the importation of used tyres, which will take effect in May, and also highlighted other initiatives in which they have been engaged over the past few years.
In light of the damning increase in accidents, the head of the GNRSC issued a “national call” to members of the public to come together and support the council in any way possible. He is urging persons as well as the media to highlight problems that may pose a threat to road users.
The council, he added, will be embarking on new initiatives such as community outreaches, developing new, customised pedestrian crossings and other methods that will ensure that drivers pay attention to the road and that pedestrians remain safe.