– Road Safety Council says this examination allows for fraud
– wants prospective drivers to write their responses to questions asked

THE effectiveness of the learner-driver package; the medical health of drivers and third-party insurance are among key concerns the Guyana Road Safety Council (GRSC) hopes to address through its 2019 programme.

Just in September, the Road Safety Council, at its third General Council Meeting, elected new officers to serve for the next two years with Frank D. Pompey being elected as chairman.

Speaking to the Guyana Chronicle on Tuesday, Pompey provided an update on the ongoing and planned works of the body.

He relayed that a number of sub-committees have been set up within the council which include the financial sub-committee; law enforcement sub-committee; and the education sub-committee.

Together, they are working to develop a 2019 programme of which one of the main issues it seeks to address is the learner-driver package which Pompey believes for some time, has not been serving its purpose.

“I think it has outlived its usefulness… because there were so many issues with that package so we need to look at that and come up with a better package for the learner-driver programme. We want to get rid of these multiple choice questions. Our recommendation is that we do training and we put questions that persons will have to write, not only pick something out on a box [stating] right or wrong, they will have to give proper answers to the question,” he stated.

The chairman said the multiple choice test also allows for fraud as was found in a 2018 investigation where policemen were fingered in forged questionnaires made out for the Theoretical Learner Driver’s examination.

POLICE CULPRITS
There changes, he said, are needed as in numerous recent cases, when it comes to road safety; the police themselves have been the erring party.

“There were a lot of fatal accidents which were committed by policemen who were driving police vehicles and in some cases their own vehicles, so, we think there’s a need to look at that driving programme and make some changes,” Pompey re-emphasised.

Apart from addressing the common offences of speeding, drinking and texting while driving, the GRSC also hopes to eventually see citizens being required to undergo medical checkups prior to receiving a drivers’ license.

“We think we should include in our examinations, before persons are given their licenses, they should go through an examination by a doctor to test their sight, also to look at their health in general before their license is being granted,” he said, adding: “The law enforcement subcommittee is putting up some proposals that we want to put forward.”
The council also wants to examine the insurance available to learner-drivers and how it affects the carefulness of the new drivers on the roadways.

“They need to make a change with this process, that as soon as a person gets his license he can drive any vehicle that has a third party insurance and I don’t think that is something good for drivers who have just started driving.”

“We need [to ensure], and we will have to consult with the insurance companies, that the driver should have his own insurance to drive the vehicle so in case of any accident, his premium will go up and he would lose points on his license. [But] if he is a careful driver, as the year goes by and he renews his license, his premium will go down. So, I think that will act as a deterrent and persons will be more careful in driving,” Pompey said.
Other aspects the GRSC will zero in on farmers who are bent on allowing their animals to graze along busy roadways and the court system which ought to ensure persons who commit driving offences have their license suspended.

Statistics provided for 2017 show that there were 71 accidents resulting in 78 deaths along with the death of a child, while in 2018 there were76 accidents resulting in 88 deaths and the death of four children.

TRAINING
For the year, the GRSC has been providing training programmes for drivers and road safety education within schools with its next target group being the public transportation sector.
Regarding the latter, Pompey said: “[We’re going to] bring them in with the assistance of the police and get them to understand the ‘dos and don’ts’ so that they can be better drivers on our roads.”

When it comes to pedestrians, the chairman regretfully noted that even with the Ministry of Public Infrastructure’s implementation of traffic lights and overpasses at strategic locations, some pedestrians are still ignoring the facilities implemented for their safety.

This type of behaviour, he said, further contributes to the non-adherence of drivers to the stoplight due to the reduction of their time. This, he said, also needs to be addressed.
To bring greater awareness, during the GRSC’s Road Safety Month of activities which begins in November, a secondary school debate competition will be hosted through collaboration with the Guyana Police Force (GPF).

Schools from Regions Three, Four, Five, Six and 10 will be participating.
Altogether, to conduct these works and more, the council receives a subvention from the Ministry of Public security along with some amounts of sponsorship. It also gets funds through fund-raising activities.

For this year, GRSC’s budget stood at $3M but an increase to this figure is much welcomed by the council.

“The amount that we have is not a big amount but we have to taper some of our programmes sometimes to make it work… because when you look at activities and you put a cost to it, sometimes it’s three times the amount of money that we get on our subvention,” Pompey said.

He added that the council is signatory to the Decade of Action for Road Safety to reduce deaths by 50 per cent by 2020 but with Guyana far from this achievement, additional finances can help to make a big difference.