Dear Editor,
Please allow me space to respond to a letter by Guyana’s Ambassador to the United States, Samuel A.A. Hinds titled, ‘Speed bumps help us to protect ourselves from ourselves”. I don’t think Mr. Hinds grasped all the points raised in my letter. I don’t think he has analyzed the advantage of speed bumps verses the many disadvantages in Guyana’s contexts. I am not sure how long he left Guyana but not most of the 55,000 bumps mentioned came about since the PPP/C came back into office.
The massive road infrastructure development is evident everywhere and most of them are riddled with speed bumps. Only today I was in Windsor Forest, WCD, and observed a street with speed bumps 60 feet apart. Mr. Hinds is lucky to drive on streets in the US with speed humps (not bumps) which are 6 feet long and 4 inches high. He is lucky to encounter 3 humps in a mile and not three bumps every 120 feet. He said he can empathize with me but showed scant regard for our hurt, property damages, economic losses, health risks and equally important, the effectiveness of our emergency services such as the Fire, Police and Ambulance services.
Where Mr. Hinds lives now have helicopters and sophisticated rescue capabilities. If we had those capabilities, all those lives lost in the Mahdia fire could have been saved. Those two children in the Mahaica fire would have had a helicopter descending in minutes rather than having a fire tender hopping several speed bumps to a building that was almost flattened when they arrived.
Mr. Hinds admitted that for much of the time he headed the Ministry of Works, he was reluctant about installing speed bumps and rightly so. I rather suspected he knew where the problem of recklessness on our roads originated from. Since then the problem of corruption in the Guyana Police Force in relation to issuance of drivers licence was obvious and what did Mr. Hinds, who was part of the government, do about it? Mr. Hinds couldn’t expect his fellow Guyanese (those who bought their licence) to display knowledge which they didn’t acquire through our driving classes.
In another part of his letter he stated, “If I were to suggest one thing that has struck me, moving at a senior age in a developed country, it is the greater need for regulation and order, self-discipline and responsibility in this more developed location. So, I have myself been observing and learning to leave earlier for appointments.” What has struck Mr. Hinds at this particular time are things I learned right here in Guyana when I went to driving classes in the late 80’s. Police Instructor, Sergeant Adams of Leonora Police Station taught us to plan our journey and leave early enough so you don’t have to hurry or speed.
I did outline in my letter greater need for new regulation to ensure only those who display competence and responsibility on the road to continue be in possession of a drivers licence. I will urge Mr. Hinds to look back at my letter and place himself in my shoe going through those streets daily and witnessing harm done to our people. I have made suggestions to His Excellency on ways to solve this problem without harm. To Mr. Hinds’ colleague, Mr. Edghill, flooding our roads/streets with speed bumps will not solve Guyana’s road problems or make us into the Dubai we all dream of. The last bit of information I received was that Minister Benn has several work-in-progress plans to stem the madness on our roads. I am anxious to learn more about them. Both Mr. Edghil and Benn need to collaborate for a successful outcome in our country if we are to get it right.
Sincerely,
C. Woolford