Speeding remains major cause of most fatal road accidents -Traffic Chief

More than 90 persons have died on the country’s roadways so far for the year, and speeding appears to be the leading cause of many of the fatal accidents.

Appearing on the Starting Point podcast over the weekend, Traffic Chief Mahendra Singh, said the Police will continue its education programmes and other interventions for better use of the roadways.

“With all classes of accidents considered, we have a 19% decrease across all categories of accident present day across the country…Administratively in terms of regions in region 4 (we are seeing the most fatalities), there are three police divisions in region 4 and the East Bank division has the most fatal accidents—19, with an equal number of deaths. Central Georgetown which is region 4A, they have 14 fatal accidents with 14 deaths and the East Coast, they also have 14 with 14 deaths,” the Traffic Chief said.

The Traffic Chief revealed that 72,000 traffic cases have been filed across all Magisterial districts this year with a 51% conviction rate. He said the conviction rate could be much higher, but there have been some constraints.

“We do have constraints which are beyond us, in some magistrate’s court they have a rationing system in terms of how many matters they would hear per day like 25, and cases made per day is about 500. So, when you consider what is actually being heard before the Courts as to what is being made daily by ranks, you can see there is a greater disproportionate figure,” the traffic Chief stated.

The Traffic Chief also revealed that 37 drivers have had their licenses suspended this year for dangerous driving or speeding, with those suspensions ranging from six to twelve months.

He said the Traffic Department continues to work on identifying vehicles that are illegally carrying sirens and flashing lights, noting that the department has had some successes in recent times in removing those equipment from unauthorized vehicles.