Posters for pedestrians

2013 Road Safety Poster Competition goes for street smarts

The National Road Safety Council (NRSC) has launched its2013 Road Safety Poster Competition, under the theme'Pedestrian Safety - the STREET SMART WAY!'

The National Health Fund is the major sponsor of the recently launched initiative.

The competition is open to all students islandwide, aged six to 19 years old, and will run until Friday, June 21.It is designed to encourage sound road safety values in the youngsters, while increasing their awareness of the importance of responsible road usage. The poster competition is also geared towards motivating children to be proactive in protecting themselves while travelling.

Students can access entry forms at the NRSC website, www.nationalroadsafetycouncil.org.jm, or at the NRSC blog, nrscjamaica.blogspot.com. They may also get entry forms at other NRSC social media sites Twitter.com/nrscjamaica or Facebook.com/nrscjamaica.

Entries will be judged on the basis of relevance to the theme, creativity, road safety awareness, style and presentation.Individual students can win between $10,000 to $30,000, as well as trophies, scholarships to programmes at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, savings accounts and gift baskets.

The theme was chosen to increase children's awareness of the need to be responsible pedestrians. Children comprise about 30 per cent of all pedestrian deaths in Jamaica each year. "The data on road fatalities is showing repeatedly that the nation's children are the most vulnerable road users. We need to put a stop to this alarming situation affecting our children and the poster competition is one of the ways in which we are educating the children on their role and responsibility in pedestrian safety," said Dr Lucien Jones, vice-chairman/convenor, NRSC.

Jones also hopes the poster competition will heighten the public's awareness about the need to be protective of children on the roads and to respect their rights as pedestrians.

The launch of the contest comes at a time when Jamaica's latest road casualties report from the NRSC is showing that since the start of the year there has been a 300 per cent increase in child-pedestrian fatalities. These moved from one for the January 1 to May 20 period last year to four for the corresponding period this year. "There is also a disturbing rise in child fatalities, which have moved up from six for the January 1 to May 20 period in 2012 to 11 for the same period this year. This is an 85 per cent increase in child fatalities."

There has also been an eight per cent increase in overall road fatalities, which have risen from 96 between January 1 and May 20, 2012 to 104 for January 1 to May 20, 2013.

Expressing concern over child fatalities and the overall deaths due to road crashes, the NRSC vice-chairman/convenor is renewing his appeal for citizens to show more care and caution on the roads. "Let us make it our responsibility to preserve and protect the lives of others and our own while using the roadways," Dr Jones urged.

Paula Fletcher, executive director, NRSC, is imploring parents and teachers to encourage their young wards to enter the competition. "The poster competition seeks to instil in children the need to play an active part in this vital life-saving initiative of road safety. So parents, the onus is on you to encourage the young ones to enter," Fletcher said. "They are never too young to start learning about road safety."