GEORGETOWN – The Safe Road Intelligence System (SRIS) has captured more than 15,000 speeding violations since going live on April 7, 2025, a stunning indicator that Guyanese motorists continue to barrel past legal limits even as the country records rising fatal accidents.
Traffic Chief Mahendra Singh revealed the figures on Friday during the launch of the Guyana Police Force’s Christmas Policing Plan, describing the surge in violations as both alarming and revealing.
With 26 operational camera sites feeding real-time data into police systems, Singh said SRIS has quickly become one of the most powerful enforcement tools in the country’s history. Some of the speeds logged were so extreme, he said, they bordered on the unbelievable. “Some of the speeds recorded were as much as 180 km/h… The only thing left for some of them is pulling airship and raising the vehicle upwards,” he told the gathering.
According to Singh, 32,708 speeding tickets have already been issued this year, nearly half of them generated automatically through SRIS. In total, law enforcement issued 47,601 traffic tickets across all offences in 2025. Singh credited the sharp jump in enforcement to expanded use of technology, Safe City cameras, regional command centres, and more fixed and roving patrols. “This is not by chance; this is because of the systems put in place,” he said.
He added that technological enforcement has also reduced roadside hostility between police and drivers. “The utilisation of summonses reduces the ability of the traffic rank to become confrontational,” he explained, noting that SRIS and associated systems bring a level of accuracy and impartiality that human interaction cannot always guarantee.
Singh warned that dangerous driving is being compounded by the unprecedented number of vehicles entering the country. Between 2020 and 2025, he said, the number of newly registered vehicles was nearly triple the total registered between 2015 and 2019. This rapid expansion, he stressed, makes the SRIS and wider CCTV network indispensable. “These cameras help us see what is happening on the road in real time,” Singh said. “It allows us to refine the services we are delivering to achieve greater efficiency.”
With the holiday season approaching, a period historically marked by spikes in reckless driving and collisions, traffic enforcement will intensify. Singh said systems are already generating more than 200 cases per week, especially for parking and obstruction offences. The message heading into the festive rush is straightforward: compliance is no longer optional.
“Our intention is to minimise accidents through visibility, partnership, awareness and enforcement… Personal responsibility starts with the road user,” he said.
