Dear Editor,
It was reported in SN on October 15, that a speeding police car travelling southwards on the East Bank Demerara (EBD) roadway collided head-on with a vehicle travelling northwards in the vicinity of Friendship Village killing five persons including the driver of the police vehicle.
This stretch of roadway has always been a testing ground for errant drivers who wanted to know the limits of their vehicles’ capabilities whether or not the machines were mechanically capable for extreme speeds. The police’s annual mandatory inspection of vehicles do not check their emissions, wear/pressure of tires, mechanical fitness such as brakes and steering ends. Therefore, many of the vehicles being driven on Guyanese roads today have defects of one sort or the other and are unsafe to be on the road. The unavailability of appropriate spares and the cost for repairs compound the problems but these defective cars are still on the road instead of being grounded.
Hence despite pleas by Friendship’s residents for a police presence and speed limits along their stretch of roadway nothing much will be done because there are many similar problem areas facing other villages in the country and the resources are just not available to implement them.
However, to control the speed limit along this stretch of roadway and others, the police should install recording cameras at strategic locations which will automatically take pictures of vehicles exceeding their speed limits as well as their licence plates, speeds, date and time of day. Offenders will then be mailed tickets with these details as well as the levying of fines which have to be paid within a specified time or licences would be suspended. I am a driver in New York City (NYC) and because I do not have deep pockets nor can afford to have my driving licence suspended, I obey driving within the speed limits of the many streets and highways where the City has installed cameras. Incidentally, the imposed fines on delinquent drivers pay for themselves over time and the evidence has shown that the discipline of NYC drivers has been astonishingly evident.
Yours faithfully,
Charles Sohan
