Significant decline in road fatalities so far – Traffic Chief

There has been a significant decline in road fatalities compared to the figures for the same period in 2023. 

This is according to the Traffic Chief, Senior Superintendent Mahendra Singh, speaking during an interview with the Department of Public Information (DPI) on Tuesday where he shared some of this year’s statistics.

“For us right now, we are experiencing a reduction generally across all categories of accidents. When last year is compared to this year up to the present time, we have 42 fatal accidents up to today at 06:00 hours…we would have had 52,” he stated.

Singh noted that the reduction is approximately 19 per cent. He stated that the figure fluctuated significantly as far as 29 per cent with 13 fewer fatal accidents compared to the figure taken at the same time last year.

The overall figure this year is 47 fewer accidents compared to last year.

He noted that some serious accidents were preventable and could have been avoided if people paid heed to safety when using the road, especially pedestrians.

“Some persons think that when they are crossing a major roadway or thoroughfare like it is someplace remote you could just walk across without the fear of anything coming to strike you. We have CCTV footage which supports what I’m saying. So, no one would be able to contest the information,” he stated.

He noted that despite the efforts of the traffic education department, with public engagements and community relations activities, people are still callously using the road.

However, work continues to improve the statistics and decrease the number of accidents even further.

“We continue the enforcement of education. We continue to engage the Ministry of Public Works and every other stakeholder to ensure that as far as possible, road signage is supported by road marking and or lighting infrastructure, to generally enable the road-using population to use it with good visibility, proper surfaces and so on,” he stated.

The traffic chief is urging the road-using public to be cognizant of the development taking place in Guyana and the large volume of vehicles now traversing the roadways. He noted that persons should use the road more responsibly, and use the designated spaces, and pedestrians should look both ways before crossing the roads.