to address surge in road accidents

MINISTER of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn, has said that the Guyana Police Force (GPF) has been tasked with producing an updated traffic plan and implementing more aggressive measures to maintain safety on Guyana’s roadways.
“The police are going to give us, again, an updated or revised traffic plan and they are going to take stronger action. We expect them to do so and they will be held to account for that,” he said.

The minister was at the time addressing the media on the sidelines of the Guyana Fire Service’s Sub Officers Conference 2023 on Thursday.
He said that the government is very concerned about the rise in deaths caused by road accidents.
“We are concerned about inconsistencies, aberrations in the way people behave. We have been requiring, demanding more to be done in respect of speeding, drunk driving, impaired driving, whether its drugs or cellphone use,” he related.
Minister Benn said that one stark statistic is the number of motorcyclists and pillion riders who have died as a result of road accidents. Those road users will be given particular attention as the police ramp up their efforts.

Other statistics show that accidents occur mostly in the evenings, at nights and from Thursdays to Mondays.
“I think our statistics have already been destroyed on the trend for this year. I don’t think we will achieve the less that 100 road deaths which we achieved last year. But we recognise that there is an increased number of vehicles on the road. We recognise that there are persons who still insist on driving while drunk, or just speeding for the joy of it,” Minister Benn related.
He said that many of the persons involved in the accidents are relatively young, which speaks to it also being the responsibility of the parents and not only of the force.
“What is your child doing with a car in groups with particular persons at certain hours in the evening? Not that the adults themselves give the best examples. A lot of the driving around with loud music playing and speeding with all of these things are examples given by adults and so those are issues we have to work on,” Benn lamented.
The Home Affairs Minister said that so far, no bar owners have been prosecuted; however, he related that it is an issue that will be dealt with by the police as they go forward.
Just recently, on the sidelines of the opening of the National Toshaos Conference (NTC), President Dr. Irfaan Ali said that he had instructed the GPF to launch a massive road safety campaign throughout the country.

“I have already told the police that we have to do a number of things; one, launch a massive road safety campaign across the country where you have more visuals, markings…,” he said.
Dr. Ali was adamant that drinking and driving, and speeding have to be addressed, but the response needs to be seen as a collective responsibility.
The increase in road accidents are of great national concern, he said, adding: “And if you look, frankly speaking, a lot of the accidents have to do with excessive speeding and drinking and driving.”

President Ali said that he requested statistics on how many accidents occur in the early morning hours and more, because these are things they have to look at in order to develop and implement adequate safety measures.
Additionally, he advised the Commissioner of Police (ag), Clifton Hicken, to meet with the media to work out a public education programme.
“I asked the Commissioner of Police to meet with the media and work out a programme with the media through which together we can build a strong public education programme, a public awareness programme in dealing with this,” Dr. Ali related.