…as traffic accidents spike

ROAD users traversing the Soesdyke/Linden Highway daily have expressed interest in the regular occurrence of vehicular accidents, especially during the evening hours.
Statistics coming out of ‘E’ and ‘A’ Divisions, which both share territorial borders on the highway, reveal that for the year 2017, a total of 21 accidents have so far been reported on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway, three of which were fatal. This is a slight increase when compared to 2016 for the same period. The death toll from the fatal accidents amounted to six persons, all of whom were males.

Many of these accidents have reportedly occurred days apart, the latest being Saturday evening involving a truck and a car. While factors such as the condition of the highway and the absence of lighting equipment have been blamed, investigations into these calamities reveal that speeding and reckless driving are among the main factors.
Considering this double-digit number in just the span of four months, traffic ranks from both ‘A’ and ‘E’ Divisions are involved in joint patrols to monitor speeding drivers. Speaking to the Guyana Chronicle on Tuesday, Traffic Chief Dion Moore posited that this is done every day, both day and night. “There are daily enforcements and by night they have two cars that ply the highway, one from Linden and one from Madewini that patrol the highway.”

Traffic Corporal Dorvon Semple attached to the Mackenzie Police Station revealed that patrols are very active on the highway as speeding is a major cause of concern. “As of recent as yesterday, we had 26 speeding alone, that’s on the highway,” Semple highlighted.
While the ranks focus on speeding and negligent drivers during the day, since the speedometer does not function in the nights, the emphasis during the nights is on lumber and heavy-duty trucks that may be traversing the highway or parked dangerously.

“Basically, during the night is to ensure that no vehicle is left unattended or broken down and so forth and if they should see those kinds of vehicles and no one is there, they would have to provide reflectorized material and so forth to ensure that the public can see,” Traffic Chief Moore said, reiterating that lumber trucks and heavy-duty vehicles are not permitted to traverse the highway after 6 pm. Moore highlighted that the enforcements have been very effective, as no negligent truck drivers have so far been caught for 2017.

Repairs to the highway
Many drivers have however complained that the condition of the highway is also a main cause of concern which needs urgent attention. While drivers who are au fait with these infrastructural faults on the highway may be at lesser risk, strange drivers are more vulnerable to get into accidents especially during the nights, since there are no lights on the 45-mile of uninterrupted stretch of bituminous road filled with dangerous curves, turns, bridges and bumps. “Yes I understand that speeding does cause accidents, but [it] is not speeding alone: some of these accidents is vehicle turn over and all of these things and the road have to do, the road needs repairing, they only patching patching and not doing proper repairs,” one bus driver plying the Linden to Georgetown route complained.

In an invited comment, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Geoffrey Vaughn, on Tuesday related that tenders are currently being advertised for contractors to bid for extensive repair works to be carried out not only on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway, but on other main highways coming under the purview of his ministry.