Road safety is everybody’s business, get involved

Dear Editor,

As the wanton destruction of life, limb and property continues on our roads and highways, with the mini bus drivers being the greatest sinners, it must also be said, that other categories of road users are also contributing significantly. We must acknowledge that these buses are providing an invaluable service to the people in all of our ten Administrative Regions of our country and in the same breath I can say they have become the most dangerous weapon on our roads and highways over the last couple of decades. However the question is, can we all do without them? The answer is a resounding no. And while there might be a group of persons or should I say, the privileged few who do not use these buses, those persons do depend heavily on us who use this vital service daily in every region and route in more ways than one.

I can remember when the National Road Safety Council was a vibrant organisation in Guyana and was headed by one Mr. Naraine (I cannot remember this goodly gentleman’s name full name), but he was from Enterprise on the East Coast of Guyana. There was a slogan, “Road safety is everybody’s business, get involved now,” along with a whole lot of activities for road safety month including the Best Driver Competition for all categories of vehicles, erecting and painting of signs, lecturing in all schools, and a host of other activities.

The world has changed, the population has grown, there are far better roads and highways and more of them also, and there are also more and more vehicles and faster ones too. A lot of people would not know what the Morris Oxford, the Austin Cambridge, the Consul, the Vauxhall and many others looked like; they were by far slower and sturdier.

All of our daily papers’ front pages and on social media carried a photograph of the mini-bus which was recently involved in an accident that claimed the lives of five persons and injuring others. The bus was reduced to what can described as a heap of twisted metal.

One does not have to be a police officer or a driver to conclude that speeding may have been the major cause of the accident, the evidence is there to arrive at such a conclusion.

I read a letter in the Friday 20th December edition of Stabroek News, written by one Mr. Keith Evelyn, a person known to many of us, (for decades this gentleman has been associated with the insuring of motor vehicles of all types), which was was very edifying. Paragraph three in particular speaks volumes, but the question is, where do we as a people go from here? Keith by way of his letter, has made a sterling contribution to making our roads and highways a safer place.

Every Guyanese has a critical role to play if we are to get on top of this woeful situation as it is. It can be said that the Ministry of Public Security has tried and will continue in its efforts to curb this carnage on the road as it is currently.

The Top Cop is on record making certain comments that surely indicates that there are some rogue traffic cops in the Police Force and efforts are being made to weed them out. The persons who purchase minibuses and hand them over to the drivers and conductors to operate have a role to play. The travelling public have their role to play. The Commanders and each and every member of our Police Force have a role to play, the magistrates and judges, the teachers; each and every one of us have different roles to play.

Because when we are in the confines of our homes, we have friends, relatives, neighbours, employees, and a whole lot of people that we know, traversing our roads and highways.

I have spoken before now by way of letters to the editors of our daily newspapers and will continue to so do, in an effort to help minimise the wanton destruction of lives and valuable property that occurs on a daily basis on our roads. We do not know for whom the bell would next toll.

Road safety is everybody’s business, get involved, not tomorrow but now.

Yours faithfully,

Archie W. Cordis.