Dear Editor,
I have been a licensed driver for the better part of 30 years and driving since age thirteen, I am now 52 (as of Thursday 5 January). In all my years of driving, pedestrians have always been my major concern. Pedestrians are the most vulnerable road users and have not protection from severe to fatal harm from automobiles. I developed this sense of safety due to a car when I was young, splashing my school uniform with muddy water, and drove away leaving me drenched.
In the almost four decades of driving, I have four total accidents under my belt with 3 being caused by others and one due to lack of sleep after 24 hours on duty. Editor, it amazes me that Guyana does not have more road fatalities due to automobile accidents.
On January 3, as I walked down Light Street in Alberttown, a woman driving a Nissan Xtrail pushed her almost 2100kg automobile in front of me to avoid being hit by passing vehicles and having my skin drenched with muddy water. This woman did not even mouth an insincere apology. One hundred meters from our first encounter she pushed her vehicle between me and a small lake on the road near the GTT antenna. I was in the space before her but she felt I was just a nuisance needing to push off the road into the water. I had to take evasive steps to prevent an accident when she was operating the more dangerous machine.
On Orange Walk at North Road, a car heading south driven by a male decided that me standing on the shoulders waiting to cross the road, meant he could push me further onto the shoulder, so he can violate the right away owned by the motorists on North Road. Another driver with no concern for pedestrians. In his rush, he grazed me and did not even bother to check, for I was an insignificant road user undeserving of his humanity. On Middle Street, just above East Street before Cummings Street, I observed the traffic and safely crossed the road heading to the north shoulder to get on the sidewalk, only for my life to be threatened by a driver in a heavily tinted car turning onto Middle Street. This act of disregard for my safety caused me to regress into the middle of the street to avoid him driving over my feet. However, he appeared more annoyed than I.
Editor, that’s my experience in one day as a pedestrian on the streets of Georgetown. If I enumerate the number of times drivers simply ignore I am an official road user, your daily would not be able to print any other stories. What is also noticeable about many of these drivers who have threatened my life with their conveyance, is that almost all are adorned with either biblical verses, the Hindu symbol for life or Islamic Hadith proclaiming love of humanity. Yet all felt that I needed to be pushed out of the way so they can traverse to wherever they are going which is so more important than my life or that of any other pedestrian.
As I stated earlier, it is amazing there aren’t more road fatalities involving pedestrians and this is not owed to the drivers, but rather the pedestrians who must take life persevering measures to avoid a toe tag at the morgue.
Sincerely,
Ty Talbot