Dear Editor,
I visited Guyana for seven days (April 10-17). On one day the papers headlined three road deaths, and in the following days I read of four more. Yesterday the papers reported the story of Christopher Singh who worked all night as a security guard – but couldn’t get home alive. His life is lost because of a simple truth: We are a nation that feels compelled to use our village roads as highways (55 mph and above) and our government has no interest in imposing discipline on the motorists.
Why so many lives are sacrificed almost daily? What has changed since the 1960’s? Today almost every household owns a car. Our roadways’ capacity remain almost unchanged. Two lanes, one to go, the other to come and no divider between the lanes. Speeding is the national culture.
This nation does not have the funds to build highways. And, highways cannot be built overnight. So how do we slow or end the road carnage? Let’s do the sensible thing. Instill a heavy dose of fear in the motorists’ mind – he must stay within the speed limit.
And, the speed limit for village roads should be 25-35 mph. The speed limit for all five boroughs of New York City is 25 mph. Why should it not be the same for Guyana’s village roads – where cyclists, motorcyclists, donkey carts, pedestrians as well as motorists use the same single or two-lane roadways?
Yours faithfully,
Mike Persaud
