Road deaths: Benn says parents should play greater role in ensuring safe driving by children

Following the recent deaths of eight young people, including four teenagers, on the country’s roadways at the weekend, the Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn is urging parents to play a greater role in ensuring their children practice safe driving.

“What is your child doing with a car in groups with particular persons at certain hours of the evening? Not that the adults themselves give the best examples. A lot of the driving around with loud music playing, speeding…are examples given by adults and so those are issues we have to work on,” the Home Affairs Minister told reporters at the sidelines of an event on Thursday.

Four teenagers died in an accident early Sunday morning after the vehicle they were in collided with a parked truck and a concrete fence at Canal #2 Polder, West Bank Demerara (WBD), Region Three. The young driver was reportedly speeding.

Those who died in this accident are: Daveanand Singh, 17, of Providence, East Bank Demerara; Amiesha Jaikaran, 19, of La Grange Old Road, WBD; Divyanie Narine, 18, of Kitty, Georgetown; and Daniel Tirbeni, 19, of La Grange.

Benn said the government remains “very concerned” at the increasing number of road deaths. As a result, the Guyana Police Force and the Traffic Department have been tasked with taking strong action against delinquent road users.

“We are concerned about inconsistencies, aberrations in the way people behave; we have been requiring, demanding, more to be done in respect of speeding, impaired driving, whether it is drugs, cellphone use, and those things,” Benn contended.

He said there is also an increase in the number of motorcycle users involved in fatal accidents.

“One stark statistic is the number of persons who have died who are motorcyclists, pillion riders, not wearing helmets even though we have given out free helmets

“We have asked the Guyana Police Force, the Traffic Department and the Commanders to take them off the road.”

The Traffic Department has found that most tragedies occur in the evenings, nights, and from Thursdays to Mondays.

“I think our statistics have already been destroyed on the trend for this year, I don’t think we will achieve the less than 100 road deaths which we achieved last year,” the Home Affairs Minister said.

He added, “But we recognise that there is an increasing number of vehicles on the road; we recognise that there are still persons who insist on driving while drunk or just speeding for the joy of it…many of these persons are very young.”

Even though the government amended the Intoxicating Liquor Licensing Act in November 2022 to impose hefty fines against bar owners who serve alcohol to drunk people, no one has been charged or prosecuted, according to Benn.

Under the Act, license holders are mandated to impose obligations on drivers at their establishments and are required to play a more active role in the prevention of drinking and driving.

The Act was amended to increase the fines for breach of the obligations by the license holder to $100,000 for the first offence, and to $200,000 for a second offence.