... crash hotspots to receive rumble strips

WESTERN BUREAU:

Three areas in Hanover where numerous traffic crashes have occurred over recent years are to be fitted out with rumble strips on Labour Day as part of the overall effort to get motorists to reduce their speed and make the roads in the parish safer.

Rumble strips are slightly elevated patches of roadway that are placed across the street to create a bump when motorists drive over them. Its primary purpose is to force drivers to reduce their speed, and also to create awareness and attentiveness.

Lucea Mayor Sheridan Samuels, who is also the chairman of the Hanover Municipal Corporation (HMC), told last Thursday’s monthly meeting of the corporation that the three roads to be impacted are Watson Taylor Drive in Lucea, a section of the Point Road, and a section of the Aston King Highway.

“We are looking at pedestrian crossings, street signs, but the main Labour Day project is the placing of rumble strips along the three roadways,” said Samuels, who explained that the theme for Labour Day is ‘Plant A Tree for Life, Promoting Climate Change, Mitigation, Food Security and Road Safety’.

“The locations that we have identified to put those strips are really at areas where we have a lot of accidents over the years, Watson Taylor Drive, in the vicinity of the Hanover Parish Library; at Point, Lucea, in the vicinity of the Grand Palladium Hotel; and along the Aston King Highway, on the stretch of road between the Round Hill hotel and the Great River bridge,” said Samuels. “We will be putting them on both sides of the roads in each location.”

He added: “We are in contact with the National Works Agency (NWA) to find out how soon we can get them (rumble strips) in, but we want to actually start the process, we are putting the prep work in place, and I can tell you, it is going to happen, rumble strips are going to be at those locations.”

Superintendent Sharon Beeput, the police commander for Hanover, and Acting Superintendent Oneil Henry, of the Hanover division of the Jamaica Fire Brigade, are among the persons who have been calling for the installation of rumble strips at the so-called black spots.

– Bryan Miller