Low turnout for quality expo

Driver distraction a major safety focus

Sheldon Williams

Gleaner Writer

Attendance at the fifth Jamaica Driver & Traffic Safety Expo, staged recently at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre, Hope Road, St Andrew, was not as impressive as the organisers would have wanted. However, plans are already being made for next year's staging, set for June 21, 2014.

Chairman of the expo's planning committee, Alphonso Grennell, attributed the poor turnout to a cutback in advertising, but said the event was still a success.

"It was less than last year. Last year's attendance was about 2,000, because of the publicity, but this year was no more than 1,000. We didn't have the radio or television promotion like last year, because of a shortage of funds," Grennell said. "However, the day went well for the persons who were there. They got a lot of information from the public forum, driver seminar and driver challenges."

Grennell said about 16 organisations connected with the automotive industry participated in the expo and provided valuable road safety awareness tips. "We had a public forum where attendees could ask just about anything in the insurance industry, any question on licensing and taxis and other questions. After the public forum, we had a defensive driving seminar where people received critical road safety information on distractive driving and stopping distance and following distance," Grennell outlined.

Tailgating

The instruction was based on needs which have been identified. "Just recently, GeoInformatics did a study of crashes in Jamaica and what they found was that one of the leading causes of crashes was people running into the back of other vehicles - tailgating. So we did a presentation on that to show people how to properly measure a distance that is safe behind the vehicle that is in front of them, so no matter how rapidly a vehicle stops in front you don't have to run into the back. So that went well and we looked at the different ways people are distracted when driving and hat was well received," Grennell said.

Attention divided

He explained that "distractive driving is basically having your attention divided. In other words, it takes away from driving. It's not just driving but other activities. For instance, the person may be looking at someone outside the vehicle or something outside the vehicle and not look where they're going. Or it could be something in the vehicle; it could be a cellphone, or changing the radio station or eating. It could be drinking. Just about anything that takes your attention away from driving is called driver distraction".

Grennell pointed out that there are different levels of driver distraction and all were examined. "We can be distracted in three possible ways. One is what we call physical distraction, that is, the hand off the steering wheel. And we have what is called mental distraction, and that is the mind-off driving, which is also called cognitive distraction. And we have visual distraction, which is the eyes off the road," he explained.

There was also a parallel parking challenge, where persons were asked to park their vehicles using the driving technique in the least time that they could. Other challenges included driving through randomly placed cones and also reversing through those cones. Grennell said, to his surprise, several persons performed below par in the latter. " I didn't realize how many people cannot really reverse properly, so you wonder how they got their licenses," he remarked.

Among the companies which participated in the fifth Jamaica Driver & Traffic Safety Expo were the Insurance Association of Jamaica, Total Jamaica and the Transport Authority.