THE revamping of traffic legislation to deal with the mounting dangers on the roads of Guyana is among priority matters going before Parliament when it resumes, President Bharrat Jagdeo said last week.

Tougher action to reign in speeding, drunk driving and other terrors on the roads has long been promised but nothing much has happened.

Every time there is a serious accident, there is a lot of talk about what has to be done and how the authorities would get tough with defaulters.

There is usually a flurry of activity for a while and then it's soon back to business.

Until the next horrible road accident in which more people die.

We have referred before to the dangers roaming animals pose to travellers on the main roads in this country but little, if anything has been done to corral them.

And so cattle, horses, donkeys, sheep, goats, roam freely wherever they please.

Cattle grazing on parapets and sleeping on streets at nights is a common sight in the capital Georgetown but the danger from animals on the loose is much more on highways along the coast - on the Corentyne, the East Coast Demerara and the West Demerara.

The situation has become so dangerous that the United States Embassy here has found it necessary to raise it as a matter of concern with the Guyana Government.

"I promise you that my embassy will make the point to your Government that U.S. citizens are unsafe and are less likely to visit any country that cannot keep animals off the road", Mr. Andrew Parker, the number two at the embassy told a gathering of business people in Berbice Saturday.

He did not mix his words in sharing the concerns over the issue of the

Upper Corentyne Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UCCCI) in that part of the country.

The chamber had appealed for action before to get the animals off the Corentyne highway and their concern is understandable - the road is the only one leading to the ferry vessel crossing on the border Corentyne River between Guyana and Suriname.

That's the road travellers have to use from and to the terminus and roaming animals suddenly appearing in front of a vehicle is not exactly the kind of Guyanese welcome and hospitality a first time visitor should be treated to.

Visitors and Guyanese deserve better and it's long past time for the animals to be cleared off the roads.

The lure of the lush grass almost always present at the side of streets in the city is difficult for cattle farmers and their stock to resist but the City Council has to find other ways to keep the grass down.

It is a pity that the issue has had to be raised as a matter of concern by the embassy of a friendly country but now that it has, Guyanese may find some comfort in expecting that it would be treated with more urgency.

Mr. Parker is right: "There is simply no excuse for such cavalier indifference to human safety by farmers and governments alike."
Something for the authorities to chew on.