The Ministry of Home Affairs in collaboration with the Guyana Police Force and the National Road Safety Council, on Friday launched a “Road Safety Education Enforcement Awareness Campaign” across seven regions across the country.
The campaign was launched under the theme “Stop Speeding, Don’t Drink & Drive Stay Alive!”
In regional division 4(a), Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn, Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill, and Traffic Chief, Ramesh Ashram, joined with members of the national road safety council and police ranks who were distributing bumper stickers, flyers and even face masks while they spoke with drivers about being safe on the roadways.
Edghill, who was seen distributing the handouts and speaking with drivers on JB Singh Road in Georgetown, told members of the media that the campaign is very important for all Guyanese as the country’s most valuable asset are its people. “We’ve been losing too many of our people to carelessness and dangerous driving on the road, both some of us being dangerous and some of us being affected by others who have been careless and dangerous,” he said.
He added that the government believes that if the awareness is raised and persons are encouraged to act wisely, they will practice “the 5 C’s” and in turn foster safer roadways in the country.
Meanwhile, Minister Benn said that the campaign is one where the authorities wanted to engage the public and drivers in their operating spaces and be able to make the roads safer. “We have had a 40% increase in road deaths compared to 2019 even though we have less people traveling,” he said while adding that the authorities have noticed that accidents and deaths are occurring mostly in the evening hours between the hours of 6pm and 12am and also mostly on the weekends.
Based on statistics, Benn said that motorcyclists and pedestrians are the groups more impacted by fatal accidents and also significantly, younger people between the ages of 20 and 35.
“We know that we need to work to continue to put back the environment in place where security in terms of traveling, road safety is improved… we hope that the trend plateaus just now and then declines in respect of it,” he said.
Benn noted that as the holiday season begins, the authorities will seek to increase awareness and work towards safer roadways.
According to the minister, the campaign will continue across the country over the next two to three weeks.
