ACTING Police Commissioner David Ramnarine has contended that road safety campaigns will only succeed when road users change their attitude towards the rules of the road.
He expressed these sentiments at the launch of the National Road Safety Action Plan 2017-2019 at the Pegasus Hotel on Wednesday. The acting top cop said the Police Force is not short of manpower, breathalysers or radar guns but there is need for more compassionate and caring road users.
According to Ramnarine, human and economic loses are increasingly becoming endemic due to accidents. To help in stemming the number of accidents, the Police Force has strengthened the leaner/driver examination in recent years.
It now has a strong civilian oversight with the introduction of the Cops and Faith Community network. This examination is also supervised by invigilators from the religious community and the marking of the papers are also done by holy-inclined people in a bid to avoid discrepancies.
“We have taken it a stage further with collaboration with the GRA. Every certificate of competence issued by a certifying officer has to be verified by the traffic chief who sends a report to the commissioner and who collaborates with the GRA,” the acting top cop said.
But though collaboration with key stakeholders is increasing, the carnage on the roadways continues.

“There are too many people being killed on the roadways and in the midst of the carnage drivers appear to forget the five Cs once they enter a vehicle,” Ramnarine told the Pegasus gathering.
The five Cs are: Consideration, Commonsense, Caution, Courtesy, and Care. Meanwhile, Traffic Chief Dion Moore said the majority of persons killed on the roadways are pedestrians, noting that they account for 34 per cent of all road deaths. Passengers and occupants of motor vehicles account for 22 per cent, motorcyclists 15 per cent and pedal cyclists 14 per cent.
“We recognise that most of the accident occur during the period of 18:00hrs to midnight during Fridays through Mondays and the type of vehicles involved are private vehicles and the age of the drivers involved in fatal accidents fall between the ages of 25 to 33,” the traffic chief noted.
He said persons age 55 and older are largely responsible drivers. The National Road Safety Action Plan 2017-2019 envisions by 2020, there will be a 50 per cent reduction in fatal accident, and Superintendent Moore said all stakeholders will be onboard to make this target a reality.
“Road safety is not the police’s function or the minister’s function; road safety deals with persons acknowledging the importance of safety. There is a saying crime is not a must, but traffic is a must because persons must move from point A to B in order to survive,” he said.