`Too many lives are lost in daily carnage. The broken limbs and bodies not only become an expensive burden on the health care system, but result in shattered lives of loved ones and dependants. Too many homes are today haunted by the loss of a beloved child or of a breadwinner from death or incapacitation. Reasonable steps have to be taken therefore, to protect the travelling public from the unnecessary and continuing exposure to danger’. - PPP
MISUNDERSTANDING of measures to ensure greater public safety and destabilising activities by anti-government elements have served to fuel the dispute between mini-bus operators and the authorities, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) said in a statement yesterday.

Declaring its support for the police in their drive to regulate traffic and to implement laws that ensure greater safety for the commuting public, the party also called on all interested parties and stakeholders to “act responsibly”.

The escalation of the present standoff between operators and the authorities should come to a swift end, the party said.

“Too many live are lost in daily carnage. The broken limbs and bodies not only become an expensive burden on the health care system, but result in shattered lives of loved ones and dependants. Too many homes are today haunted by the loss of a beloved child or of a breadwinner from death or incapacitation. Reasonable steps have to be taken therefore, to protect the travelling public from the unnecessary and continuing exposure to danger,” the PPP stressed.

The party said it is of the view that “the dispute between mini-bus operators and the authorities has resulted from (a) misunderstanding of measures required to ensure greater public safety and (b) destabilising activities by anti-government elements to confuse stakeholders, punish commuters, and derail the road transport system,” the ruling party noted.

The party said it understands the fears of mini-bus operators that nothing should be done by the authorities to either bring economic hardships to them or create additional areas of traffic violations that may result in harassment.

Noting that the mini-buses have” filled a void’ and have rescued commuters throughout Guyana, the statement said that it is the party’s view that bus owners/operators provide a “strategic service since the destruction of the public transportation system some two decades ago”.

However, this recognition does “not blind us” to the reality that the manner in which many of these vehicles operated has left much to be desired.

“The disregard for public convenience by excessively loud music (boom boom boxes) and the placing at risk of the lives of commuters through recklessness, could no longer be ignored.

“There is nothing sinister or wrong for Guyana to ensure that seat belts requirements are put in place. This is common in all pats of the world. However, in Guyana today, there is no law to make the wearing of seat belts compulsory in any vehicle. The Government therefore proposes to make such a law.

“The PPP believes that it must be made abundantly clear that all vehicles are allowed to have radio, tape and CD electronic apparatus for normal use and enjoyment,” the statement said.

As regards the issue of seat belts, the release said, “ There is nothing sinister or wrong for Guyana to ensure that seat belts requirements are put in place. This is common all parts of the world. However, in Guyana today there is no law to make the wearing of seat belts compulsory in any vehicle. The Government therefore proposes to make such a law.”

The PPP, in the statement also appealed to all bus operators to understand that the efforts to “introduce regulations for the better and more efficient operation of mini-buses, as both a safe and profitable business, must not be seen as a humbug to their economic interest. They are necessary to protect lives and limbs, and to make Guyana a humane law-governing society in the interest of all.