Amid a stream of road deaths President David Granger yesterday plugged a three-prong plan to curb the scourge and his Public Infrastructure Minister noted that the burgeoning number of vehicles with little or no increase in road capacity was a critical factor.
Granger was at the time delivering the feature address at the official launch of Road Safety Month 2015 at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre (ACCC), Liliendaal, a statement from the Ministry of the Presidency said. A key part of the three-point plan focuses on the enhancement of infrastructure around the country. Granger said that Guyana has public roads, not highways and this means that most of the roads are situated in heavily populated areas. He argued that encumbrances such as shipping containers, roadside vendors’ stands, derelict vehicles and stray animals must be removed from roadways.
“Traffic lights must be in working order and configured to allow for the smooth and orderly flow of traffic. Our major public roads must have road lighting to improve safety… Our roads must be re-engineered, where possible, to ensure that they are fitted with sidewalks, pavements, pedestrian crossings and in some cases equipped with bicycle and pedestrian lanes. Road markings and signs should be visible. Medians should be built, where possible, to prevent vehicles going to opposite directions ending up in each other’s path,” Granger said, according to the Ministry of the Presidency.
Stricter enforcement of traffic laws, he said, is another part of the plan particularly as it relates to loud music along with the use of cellular phones while driving, double and diagonal parking, driving under the influence of alcohol, speeding and overloading of passenger vehicles. Education and awareness is the third point.
“There is need for greater education to instruct our people, both drivers and passengers, on the dangers of speeding. Our drivers, particularly drivers of mini buses, hire cars and taxis must be re-educated, re-trained and re-certified to enable them to qualify to be responsible for driving vehicles with passengers, as opposed to cargoes, on our roads,” Granger said.
He also posited that commercial licences should not be granted unless the applicant has proven their suitability.
It is estimated that the cost of the medical care of accident victims exceeds more than $100M per year at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation alone. Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson, noted that there has been a phenomenal increase in the number of vehicles on the roadways from 42,329 in 2000 to 110,635 in 2013. In addition to animal-drawn carts, pedal cycles, and pedestrians, there has also been a significant increase in the number of motorcycles.
“The increases in vehicular traffic took place with little or no improvement in the capacity of both urban and rural roads along with no improvement in pedestrians and cyclist facilities,” Patterson told the gathering.
He also spoke of the need for empirical evidence that links road accidents to the use of used tyres on vehicles. Used tyres have been blamed for blowouts and over the years there have been calls for a ban to be placed on them.
Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan, in his remarks to the forum noted that the Ministry has started an operation utilising CCTV cameras, which to date, have captured over 3100 traffic offences. Video clips of these violations are sent to the offending drivers, who are then charged. As a result, over 99 percent of these drivers have accepted a guilty plea and are before the courts, the Ministry of the Presidency release said. At present, the cameras are only on a few streets in the City, but the Government has a long-term plan to ensure that cameras are installed in all parts of Georgetown in the near future.
Advisor to the Minister of Education, Vincent Alexander in his remarks to the forum said that the Ministry will be working to ensure that speed bumps are placed in the vicinity of all schools in Georgetown in the initial phase, while the same will be done across the country in the medium term.
Acting Chairman of the Guyana National Road Safety Council, Frank Pompey, told the forum that statistics compiled by the Traffic Department revealed that in 2012 there were 102 accidents which resulted in 117 deaths; 2013-103 accidents-122 deaths; 2014-92 accidents-111 deaths and thus far this year, there have been 84 accidents which have caused 100 deaths, the release said.
