Enhancing regulations and laws without behaviour change may prove useless in the country’s bid to reduce road fatalities, says Legal Affairs Minister and Attorney General, Anil Nandlall.
The official’s comment comes against the backdrop of several fatal road accidents within the last couple of weeks, forcing government ministers and law enforcement officials to issue missives calling for more responsible use of roadways.
Earlier this week, three persons were killed and at least three injured when a car driven by a 19-year-old slammed into a West Coast Demerara drinking establishment. The teen was reportedly in a racing match when he lost control of the vehicle.
Nandlall in his “Issues in the News” programme aired last night lamented the “callous and negligent waste of human lives”, noting that while strengthening of laws is a possibility, it would be meaningless without a willingness of road-users to change the way the thoroughfares are being used.
“We can strengthen our laws – and we may move in that direction – and bring greater regulatory framework in place, but it requires much more than that. The laws can only achieve results to a certain extent. It has to do without our culture, it has to do with our behaviour, it has to do with our mentality, it has to do a lot with education and awareness,” he said.
As if to illustrate the importance of behaviour transformation in acquiring social change, Nandlall referenced the ongoing clean-up exercise that is ‘gripping’ the nation, since the Government of Guyana’s collaboration with the private sector and other agencies to clean the capital city, Georgetown, earlier this year. That exercise is now being replicated in various parts of the country, including the East Coast of Demerara (ECD).
Nandlall, who is leading that exercise, posited that road users should adopt this momentum of behaviour change, reiterating that it may hold the key to reducing road accidents and deaths.
“On the East Coast of Demerara, you would see me, part of a comprehensive exercise to clean up that part of the country and that momentum was started by no other than the President, himself. And perhaps, we need a similar type of initiative directed towards using our roadways in a safer manner, so that we can begin the process of at least reducing this alarming killing rate,” the AG said.
