DREADNESS AT CHRISTMAS
Peeping Tom
Guyana Chronicle
December 29, 2006
I dread picking up the newspapers after the Christmas/Boxing Day holidays. The news at that time is without exception littered with tragic stories, amplified in their seriousness because one associates the Christmas Season with peace and tranquility, not with the gore and anguish of human tragedies.
On Wednesday, the news was filled with sadness. We read about road fatalities.
In one case, a man's body was dragged for some distance underneath a car. In another, a smash-up of vehicles resulted in the death of another man and injuries to four others. In a third accident, a koker operator was killed on the spot on the West Coast of Demerara. Prior, a mason lost his life in a road when a vehicle hit him on Christmas Eve.
Then there was the case of a young boy dying from a gunshot would to his head, and in another incident another young man receiving three gunshot wounds to his leg. As if that were not enough, the police are investigating a matter where a man was allegedly beaten to death at Friendship, East Bank Demerara. Finally, a 34-year-old man met his end following an incident at the home of one of his relatives
What is common to all of these deaths is that the victims were all working class men.
How often at this time, how often throughout the year is there is a disproportionate loss of lives of the poor in our society. It is not that I wish that the fatalities would be more balanced in terms of their social class. Not indeed. Rather it is that I wished that there would be fewer deaths in this country, which is being systematically depopulated through migration, crime, and unfortunate accidents such as those that occurred over the holiday period.
I am however struck by the fact that a great proportion of those who meet their deaths on our road over the holidays are poor people, tragedy multiplied when you consider that most of the victims are heads of households and the likely negative impact this will have on their families.
We cannot fully eliminate accidents, but we can at least try to identity the main contributing causes and seek to have these addressed to minimize the incidence of accidents. It may be painful to the relatives of the victims at this stage but in quite a few of the incidents that we have had over the holiday weekend, alcohol was involved.
In one case, it was suggested that one of the victims had drunk so much that he was lying on the road when his body was dragged by a car. In another case, one man was returning home after a get-together with friends and he was hit by a car, the driver of whom it was stated appeared to also be under the influence of the drink.
There must be a public reaction to these deaths that have occurred, many of which have occurred on our roadways. The police I know were very stretched over the holiday period but I think more could have been done especially considering that this is the period for peak alcohol consumption.
Whenever there are events that attract large numbers of people, such as races at the South Dakota Circuit, and whenever such events can give rise to the temptation for racing and speeding, the police would normally escort the vehicles along our public roads and this has helped considerably in reducing the incidence of accidents.
The same thinking should apply to the holiday period when there is likely to be drivers and pedestrians on the roadways under the influence of alcohol. I would like to see a greater police presence, to slow things down in order to help in reducing the conditions that contribute to accidents.
The New Year is approaching and I would love on New Year's Day to see a more prominent police presence on our roadways. There should be no excuses about shortage of ranks, because over the holidays the traffic beats were ubiquitous around the city.
In one case, there was an accident at the corner of Church and Camp Streets and a police traffic vehicle that was passing at the time, going north on Camp Street, simply drove past the scene.
The second response to what has happened must involve some element of personal responsibility.
Those who drink must begin to understand that when they imbibe alcohol, their awareness of what is happening around them, their reaction time and their balance are all diminished.
Thus if you have to drink, ensure that there is someone sober to take you home, or simply wait until the effects of the alcohol wear off before using our roadways. The problem, however, is some people are unaware of their own helplessness when drunk.
The third response has to be public. Given the number of vehicles that we have on our narrow roadways, there is going to be an increased incidence of accidents. This will have to be addressed by creating separate carriageways on the main public highways.
On the East Bank Public Road, there is a four-lane highway with media separating northbound and southbound traffic. This median goes as far as Providence, after which there is no barrier separating vehicles traveling in opposite directions. The same happens on the East Coast Highway between Kitty and Better Hope.
A number of fatal accidents involving vehicles going in opposite directions have been taking place on the East Bank Public Road. Thus it would seem as if there is a need over the next few years for a plan to extend most of these public roads, not necessarily into four-lane highways, but at least to have some median separating traffic going in opposite directions.
This will of course involve widening the road. The benefits will however be substantial in that we would be significantly reducing road accidents such as those that have been occurring with regular and tragic frequency.
We do not have to do the entire roadway at the time.Like the former British Guiana railway, this project of widening our main public road and installing medians, can be done in stages, as funds are available.
Finally, there must be an amendment to our laws to ensure that motor vehicles that use our roadways are adequately insured. These measures I promise will reduce the number of tragic road fatalities and thus allow us sometime in the future to have a holiday season without so much sadness.