The most dangerous curve on a holiday back in our homelands is not always a dark alley; it is often the bend in a familiar road taken with borrowed confidence. Our diaspora knows how to protect wallets and passports when visiting back home; now it is time we treat the roadways with similar vigilance.

A home baseline helps. Canada recorded 1,964 road deaths in 2023, the highest in a decade but within a long-term downward arc; Ontario’s fatality rate stood at 3.9 per 100,000 people. The City of Toronto logged 49 traffic fatalities, and Peel Region 28 deaths, both in 2024.

Across the Caribbean, the picture is more volatile. In Jamaica, by July 30 there were 229 deaths year-to-date, with 40 fatalities in July alone; the Dominican Republic reported a remarkable 824 deaths as of June 28.

Our immediate homelands are also sounding alarms. In Trinidad and Tobago, five fatalities were recorded over the August 9-11 weekend, putting 2025’s tally to 71 deaths as of August 11. In Guyana, police reported 68 deaths by July 22; by late August, 15 fatalities occurred that month alone.

We are revisiting what we have stated before in this space: road risk, like crime, must become a first-order safety habit for our diaspora back in our homelands. The data, paired with media editorials back home, show why.

Guyana’s newspapers are quite candid. Stabroek News has argued for sustained, data-driven strategies, noting 2023’s spike, a reactive 2024 pullback, and modelling that projects fatalities hovering near 118-119 annually. It links the problem to vehicle imports outpacing infrastructure, the drag on productivity and healthcare, and the need for police accountability.

Guyana Times has cited the road culture. Guyanese “toe the line overseas”, but revert to lawlessness at home; the publication warns that this behaviour undermines public order and tourism’s national image.

Meanwhile, the media in Trinidad and Tobago are issuing similar sharp calls. Last month the Trinidad Express pressed the new Transport and Civil Aviation Minister for swift, coordinated enforcement, reminding readers that earlier policing delivered international recognition, but momentum has slipped. Law enforcement visibility must return to the roads, it declared. Following this editorial, Newsday reported the year-to-date toll had hit 71 fatalities.

For our diaspora journeying to the Caribbean, especially to Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana, what we have noted above demands behavioural change. Expect different enforcement intensity, mixed road conditions, active construction zones, and varied driving norms. The numbers in fatalities above are not abstractions; they describe the risk environment we re-enter when stepping off Caribbean Airlines.

We have heard it said in Caribbean food stores in the GTA, “But I drive carefully; the problem is those ‘other drivers.’” Care is necessary, but insufficient where systemic risks amplify exposure; risks such as speeding being the norm; mixed and erratic traffic such as minibuses, maxi-taxis, motorcycles, and inconsistent road design.

We have heard in Caribbean restaurants, “There are always policemen present in Stabroek Market when I visit”. Enforcement helps; but that alone cannot correct infrastructure and culture gaps. Both Stabroek News and Guyana Times argue for structural, long-horizon measures and civic norms, not only police presence as a deterrent.

At a Carnival fete in Malvern it was stated, “Canada’s roads are dangerous in winter and we manage”. We adjust to winter driving; but Canada’s 1,964 deaths in 2023 are still cold, hard, and incontrovertible data.

So yet again we offer realism in vigilance. As visitors to our homelands, we need to apply the street smarts we engage against crime to the roadway. To invoke a metaphor, stay in your lane; arrive with humility when merging onto the roadway: slow down, buckle up, pick safer routes, do not contest bad drivers who flagrantly dismiss the law.

As the sober editorials of the region’s newspapers remind us, from Kingston to Port-of-Spain, from Georgetown to Santo Domingo, the cost of complacency is counted in family members left behind; not in DOA headlines.