| The road fatality state of affairs in Guyana translates to two thirds of all road deaths being pedestrians and vehicle occupants accounting for one third. And Mr. Darren Divall, who is attached to the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) in the United Kingdom, suspects that the road accident situation is in fact linked to the existing seat belt laws.From left: Mr. Kester Hinds, Mr. Darren Divall and Ms. Mavis Johnson“We don’t know for sure but we suspect that the law relating to the use of seat belts in Guyana is a slight barrier to increase in road safety,” Divall intimated during an interview with this publication yesterday.He pointed out that the situation that obtains here is that “if you are a driver or a front seat passenger, it is mandatory to wear it. If you are in the rear of the vehicle it isn’t; so that actually puts them (rear seat passengers) at risk because they are not being restrained in the vehicle if there is an accident and they could be thrown around in the vehicle hitting the metal frame, the windows or other passengers, or they’ve got the risk of being thrown out of the vehicle.”And Divall revealed yesterday that three quarters of the people who are thrown out of vehicles during an accident are killed.But of even more concern to Divall is the fact that evidence suggests that the road users at even higher risk of dying are pedestrians who are under the age of 17 (school age children).In order to help address the road fatality situation TRL, which is said to be one of the largest and most comprehensive independent centres for the study of land transport in the world, has been contracted by the Government of Guyana to conduct a road safety awareness project.The project with funding from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is being executed by the Ministries of Infrastructure and Education.This is in fact part of a wider project, the ‘West Coast Demerara Road Improvement’ project which has five components including: changes to the road layout, a driver and community awareness project which is being coordinated by GeoTechVision, public relations component which is being led by Tagman, monitoring and evaluation which is being undertaken by a Canadian Company and of course, the road safety education for schools.Divall related yesterday that while there are some areas with low-speed traffic with some congestion such as the Vreed-en-Hoop Junction, there are some long stretches of road along the West Coast of Demerara that are conducive for speeding allowing for increased severity of injuries and even death if an accident occurs. And there are schools in the vicinity of speeding zones such as Leonara Secondary and Greenwich Park Primary. “There are no serious injuries sustained after a crash outside the Greenwich Park Primary School, they are all fatal if they occur,” related Divall.As the Team Leader of the Road Safety Education Training Programme, Divall will today work along with his Canada-based colleague,NFL Jerseys Cheap, Mavis Johnson, to facilitate a curriculum based teachers training to advance the road safety education programme. Already two rounds of training have been completed here and the third round of training for teachers, set to commence today, will continue until tomorrow at the Hadfield Street, Georgetown, Regency Hotel. They will also facilitate a stakeholder consultation forum at the East Coast Demerara, Grand Coastal Inn on Friday.According to Senior Project Engineer within the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Mr. Kester Hinds, the road improvement project which is referred to as the Fourth Road Project, is aimed at helping to enhance the efficient use of the road as well as safety.With regards to the school safety awareness, Hinds disclosed yesterday that already TRL has been able to spearhead several sessions within target schools on the West Coast of Demerara to instil safety awareness knowledge.He added that the training sessions have also included persons from the GNRSC and the Guyana Police Force. And with the support of TRL, there will be a local standardised approach to road safety training.Moreover, TRL has been tasked with preparing a training manual which is expected to be adopted by all those involved in road safety awareness ventures. |
