–despite 20% decline

THE Guyana Police Force (GPF) has recorded a 20 per cent decrease in the number of road accidents between January and July, as compared to last year during the corresponding period.
But Traffic Chief, Dion Moore, during a press conference on Wednesday, however, deemed the decline unacceptable.

“Though it has decreased, we cannot accept it because we do not want any more deaths on our roadways,” said the Traffic Chief.
According to the statistics, so far 68 persons have died due to accidents on the roadway as compared to 88 last year during the corresponding period, which is a decline of 23 per cent.
There was also a reduction in the number of serious accidents, as compared to last year, moving from 240 to 220 this year.

Although there were many other successes in the traffic management department, the issue of accidents and deaths by accident continue to be high on the Traffic Chief’s agenda.
A growing issue over the past few days has been the number of fatal motorcycle accidents. Moore confirmed this, saying that within the space of about a week, there have been five accidents involving motorcyclists.

Twenty-seven-year-old biker, Cleon Perreira of Buxton, East Coast Demerara (ECD), and 42-year-old Joseph James of Walter Terrace, West La Penitence were among the five who lost their lives in separate motorcycle accidents.
The recent deaths took the total to 15 motorcyclists so far, as compared to 23 last year.
“We managed to reduce the amount of persons who died by asking motorcyclists to wear their safety helmets in the correct fashion,” said Moore, who reiterated the need for protective gear while riding.

Most of the accidents, he said, can be avoided because, according to their reports, the majority occurred late in the night when the roads are not congested. It was also found that while the conditions of the roads were not bad, it was the speeding that caused the accidents.
This being the case, drivers and motorists have since been constantly reminded to drive at speeds in accordance with the visible distance ahead in order to ensure that they have the proper braking time.

As the traffic chief observed: “Lives are very important, because when an accident happens, it shatters dreams, hopes and opportunities so we need to be more serious on the road.”
It has also been found that one of the major factors that contribute to road accidents is driving under the influence of alcohol.
According to the traffic chief, for the year, 1278 persons have been charged for this delinquency. Of that figure, 791 have been fined, and 17 have had their licences suspended for repeated offence.

Again, most of those incidents were found to have occurred at that time of night when most social activities tend to come to a close.
Said Moore, “When persons finish their social activities, they speed to get home early, which leads to an accident, death, injuries and damages to property.”
Coupled with driving under the influence, another factor was speeding, which resulted in 15,253 persons being charged so far for 2017.

That ‘alarming’ figure reportedly indicates that a lot of persons do not drive within the speed limit, Moore said. On top of all this, a total of 918 persons were charged for using handheld mobile devices while driving, while another 565 were charged for unlicensed driving.
As the traffic chief warned in closing: “Our work for this year shows that we will catch you and prosecute you!”