RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

With 18 days re­main­ing in the year, road fa­tal­i­ties stand at 115— a 21 per cent in­crease com­pared to the 95 deaths for the same pe­ri­od in 2023.

This rais­es ques­tions about the ef­fec­tive­ness of met­al bar­ri­ers which are be­ing in­stalled by the Min­istry of Works.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Ar­rive Alive pres­i­dent Sharon In­gle­field shared da­ta show­ing an 18 per cent rise in pas­sen­ger deaths, a 17 per cent de­crease in dri­ver fa­tal­i­ties, and an 83 per cent spike in pedes­tri­an deaths, which rose from 29 to 53. Da­ta re­vealed 34 dri­vers, 20 pas­sen­gers, 53 pedes­tri­ans, one ped­al cy­clist, and sev­en mo­tor­cy­clist fa­tal­i­ties in 2024. This to­tals 115 deaths, re­flect­ing a 21 per cent rise com­pared to last year. 

Ad­dress­ing the in­stal­la­tion of bar­ri­ers, In­gle­field said: “We are sat­is­fied to see a bar­ri­er sys­tem and want to con­grat­u­late the Gov­ern­ment for in­stalling them.” How­ev­er, she not­ed is­sues with im­prop­er in­stal­la­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly those with round­ed edges in­stead of fish­tail ends near West­moor­ings.

“We want to re­mind the Gov­ern­ment that all bar­ri­ers must have at­ten­u­a­tors and round­ed edges tied in­to con­crete walls or con­crete bar­ri­ers sunken in­to the ground. That is the in­ter­na­tion­al stan­dard,” she ex­plained.

She added, “This is not sat­is­fac­to­ry. It can cause or con­tribute to fa­tal­i­ties in a col­li­sion. So, while we con­grat­u­late the Gov­ern­ment, we ap­peal to them to en­sure all bar­ri­ers are in­stalled to in­ter­na­tion­al stan­dards.”

Con­tact­ed for com­ment, Works Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan said the in­stal­la­tion of met­al bar­ri­ers is on­go­ing and is be­ing done to in­ter­na­tion­al stan­dards.

Sinanan not­ed that the project con­sists of sev­er­al phas­es, stat­ing: “Three pack­ages un­der phase one have been is­sued.”

Asked whether this would re­duce fa­tal­i­ties in the new year, he said, “I can­not pre­dict that. We are en­cour­ag­ing road safe­ty but peo­ple have to ex­er­cise care on the na­tion’s roads.”

In Feb­ru­ary, Sinanan an­nounced that the in­stal­la­tion would take place over three years.

He ex­plained, “Phase one con­sists of three pack­ages: in­stalling W-type met­al beam guard rails on the Uri­ah But­ler High­way in the Ca­roni area (5.2 km), along the Solomon Ho­choy High­way (8.34 km), and in the Vic­to­ria West re­gion of the Solomon Ho­choy High­way (12.66 km).”

He added, “The aim is to re­place 26.2 km of ca­ble bar­ri­ers.”