Nothing quite characterises the contradictions in the current ‘Operation Safeway’ as the success in arresting hundreds of petty offenders on the one hand, and the comparative failure to arrest the spiralling toll of road fatalities, on the other.
As the police force’s zero tolerance road safety campaign rolls along, the public has been swamped by a flood of factoids: hundreds of cases of crossing the double yellow line; neglecting to wear seatbelts; failing to conform to road signs and traffic light signals; overloading minibuses; operating amplified (boom-boom boxes) musical equipment; breaches of road service licences; stopping within 30 feet of a corner and on no-parking signs; having heavily-tinted windows; exceeding speed limits, and much more.
Scores of poor pedestrians have also been charged for contravening traffic light signals and walking in the path of oncoming cars. Some of them were fined as much as $15,000, with an alternative of two weeks’ imprisonment, for their indiscretions. Several touts were also arrested at bus parks and taken to court where they were fined up to $15,000 for their crimes.
This is all well and good but the enthusiasm of the police has easily exceeded the efficiency of the criminal justice system. One magistrate, upset at the non-appearance of many persons charged with trivial traffic infringements, complained that the court was being made a mockery since many of the accused did not bother to appear.
The campaign might soon grind to a halt as a huge backlog of untried cases builds up.
Yet, the traffic dragnet from the Essequibo to the Corentyne coasts continues to ensnare delinquents by the dozen. In the Pomeroon-Supenaam Region, enthusiastic police arrested several drivers and impounded their vehicles – many of them minibuses and taxis used for commercial transport – for minor misdemeanours. In East Berbice-Corentyne, the situation turned nasty and the police used tear smoke to disperse a crowd of demonstrators who blocked the road at Tain to protest against the frivolity of the charges and the severity of the new fines.
Elsewhere on the country’s speedways, however, the news was not cheery. Only last weekend, a motorist was killed and two passengers were injured in a car crash on the Bagotstown Public Road, East Bank Demerara.
Earlier in the month, two vehicles collided at Grove, also on the East Bank Demerara, killing a pedestrian and injuring two others.
In early November, two persons died and three others including a baby were injured when a speeding car on its way to Linden was driven off a bridge at Kara Kara on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway. On the Versailles Public Road on West Bank Demerara, a motorcyclist and his pillion rider died following a head-on collision with a sand-laden truck. A senior government official was also seriously injured when the vehicle in which he was travelling crashed on a lonely stretch of the East Coast Demerara public road.
In short, the wheels seem to be coming off the road safety campaign. Serious accidents have shown no sign of ceasing.
Operation Safeway has simply not yet significantly addressed the fundamental causes of fatalities. Police preoccupation with publicity and picayune infractions has apparently obscured their perception and totally absorbed their energy. The most dangerous problems have been ignored.
First among the facts about fatalities is that many occur at night or on weekends and on open stretches of country road, not at car parks and bus terminals. High-risk areas, however, can be quite boring and attract low-level attention from case-seeking zealots. Traffic policemen are few in number, work less at night and do not have enough motorcycles to reach to the out-of-town trouble spots.
Next, the authentication of drivers’ licences requires the establishment of a computer database and cooperation between the Guyana Police Force and the Guyana Revenue Authority if unqualified and incompetent drivers are to be identified and taken off the road. Other well-known problems include the certification of the roadworthiness of both private and commercial vehicles and the determination of speeding and driving under the influence of alcohol, all of which would require special equipment – computers, radio, radars and breathalysers – for the detection of defaulters.
Mr Rohee said that he was gratified by the effects of the efforts to punish traffic offenders. The National Commission on Law and Order and the National Road Safety Council chimed their support for the campaign. Most citizens will also agree that the road safety campaign is timely and welcome and has already started to modify the behaviour of some drivers.
Few will disagree, however, that the energy and enthusiasm of the police force could be more effectively employed if the campaign focused foremost on the really dangerous abuses and the requisite equipment was provided to the police to prevent fatal accidents.