Senior cop calls for rumble strips on Hanover roadways
Published:Saturday | January 14, 2023 | 1:03 AMBryan Miller/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
SUPERINTENDENT IN charge of the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s (JCF) Hanover Division, Sharon Beeput, is recommending that rumble strips be placed along four roadways in Hanover, as those thoroughfares have become hotspots for accidents.
Rhodes Hall, Salt Creek main roads and Pointe main road adjacent to the Palladium Hotel, and the Round Hill Bluff east of the town of Hopewell, have been identified as the roadways where a number of accidents have been occurring in the parish. Many of the accidents have resulted in fatalities.
Beeput first made the call over a year ago during a Hanover Municipal Corporation (HMC) meeting, while a similar call was made by the superintendent in charge of the Jamaica Fire Brigade, Hanover Division, at the time, Raymond Desouza, based on the number of motor vehicle accidents the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) were responding to along the roadways.
Rumble strips are specially made strips of material placed across a roadway, which act like miniature speed bumps, effectively causing motorists to slow down while negotiating them.
She made the suggestion while delivering a report at the January 2023 monthly meeting of the HMC in the corporation’s meeting room in Lucea, Hanover.
Beeput singled out the Pointe main road where fatal accidents had occurred for years, noting that something needs to be done to curtail the situation.
She also pointed out that the HMC, the National Works Agency and the police have had discussions about the accident-prone areas, noting that the time has come for concrete action to be taken.
Although not giving any statistics, Beeput declared: “We have to do something about it, we have to save lives for this year 2023, because the fatal accident rate last year was very bad.”
Beeput called on the HMC to make an effort to get some proper signage placed along the roadways across the parish, earmarking speed limit and road names, among other things.
In western Jamaica, rumble strips are presently in place across the roadways in the Rose Hall and Sangster International Airport areas of St James, and along Norman Manley Boulevard in the Negril area of Westmoreland.