September records drop in road deaths, accidents
Statistics released by the Guyana Police Force (GPF) have shown further decreases in road accidents as 2015 progresses, with September recording an 18 percent decrease when compared to the same period last year.
On Tuesday, the GPF released its monthly statistics, this time for the period covering January 1 to September 30, 2015.
According to statistics presented by the GPF, there were 76 recorded fatal accidents from January to September 30. For the same period in 2014, the police said they were 93 fatal accidents. This represented a decrease in fatal accidents of 18 percent.
When it came to deaths, there was recorded 11 percent decrease in road fatalities. For up to September month-end, there were 90 recorded deaths while for the same period last year there were 101 deaths.
Deaths of children remained on par with 2014; for both this year and last year there were 12 children who died.
Additionally, there were also decreases for other types of accidents, excluding damage accidents. According to the statistics, the police recorded 295 up to September 30, 2015 while for the same period last year, there were 316 damage accidents. This represented a decrease of seven percent.
Similarly for minor accidents, there was a decrease of two percent; from 381 minor accidents in 2014 to 373 minor accidents at September month-end.
The only recorded increase was in damage accidents. Here, there was a six percent increase, from 592 in 2014 to 626 this year.
In August, decreases had been seen on all fronts. The police had said that there was a 20 percent decrease in fatal accidents while there was a 10 percent decrease in deaths. Additionally, serious, minor and damage accidents had seen decreases of nine percent, three percent and four percent respectively.
Meanwhile – specifically for September – the month recorded just above average recordings in both accidents and deaths. For the month, there were 10 recorded deaths from 10 accidents. This represented an increase of 43 percent in accidents, up from seven August. This also represented an increase of 25 percent in deaths, up from eight in August.
July, February and May had been the bloodiest month on Guyana’s roadways with 14 recorded deaths each. However, July recorded the highest number of accidents with 13.
Furthermore, pedestrians remain the most affected category of road users killed from January 1 to September 30.
For the period, the police said that there were 31 pedestrians killed. The second most affected group was ‘passengers in cars’ with a recorded 17 deaths. Motorcyclists followed with 13 deaths and then drivers with 11 deaths.
The police also said that the private car was the type of vehicle most involved in fatal accidents for the reviewed period. According to the police, out of 102 vehicles, 39 of them were private cars. The second most involved type of vehicle was the motorcycle with 17 vehicles then minibuses and vans, both with 12 each.
Hire cars recorded eight vehicles as well as pedal cycles and finally motor pickups with six vehicles.
Accidents by divisions
The police statistics also focused on the police divisions, ‘A’ through ‘G’. From these stats, it is clear that the East Coast of Demerara (Division ‘C&rsquo
can be termed the accident centre of Guyana.
According to the police, there were declines in both accidents and deaths in all divisions – that is, all divisions except Division ‘C’. Here, there was a noted increase of 156 percent in deaths and 89 percent in accidents when compared to the same period of January to September last year.
In Division ‘C’, the police said that there were 23 deaths at the end of September 2015 as compared to nine deaths at the end of September 2014. For accidents, there were 17 at the end of September 2015 as compared to nine at the end of September 2014.
However, though the East Coast saw the biggest increase, it is certainly not the division with the highest figures. That division was Georgetown/East Bank of Demerara (Division ‘A&rsquo with 28 deaths from 28 accidents.
However, Division ‘A’ saw a decline in both accidents and deaths; for deaths, there was a decrease of 20 percent, from 35 deaths in 2014 while for accidents there was a decrease of 13 percent, from 32 accidents in 2014.
Division ‘E’ (Linden/Kwakwani) saw the biggest declines when compared to 2014; accidents declined by 75 percent while deaths declined by 83 percent.
Division ‘F’ (Interior locations) also saw big declines in both accidents and deaths; there were recorded declines of 67 percent.
Meanwhile, the police statistics showed that speeding continued to be the leading cause of fatal accidents. Other causes included driving under the influence of alcohol (11 fatal accidents), failure to conform to road signage (2 fatal accidents), error of judgment (2 fatal accidents), and breach of traffic light signal (1 fatal accident).