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Safety hits the road - Rising fatalities spark education tour

Published:Sunday | September 29, 2013 | 12:00 AM
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One of the two buses involved in Wednesday's fatal three-vehicle crash in Chudleigh, Manchester, in which four Holmwood Technical High School students were killed and several injured.-File PHOTOS
A vehicle that was destroyed in an accident in 2008.
A police-man from the Accident Reconstruction Unit takes photographs at the scene of an accident in which a pedal cyclist travelling along Oxford Road in St Andrew toward Tom Redcam Avenue was hit off a bicycle by a truck earlier this year.-File
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With traffic fatalities climbing, the Road Safety Unit (RSU) in the Ministry of Transport, Housing and Works is putting on a road tour geared at sensitising the public on the importance of safety. Under the theme 'Walk, Ride and Drive with Care', it is being staged in tandem with the National Road Safety Council (NRSC) and other stakeholders.

The most recent high-profile fatal motor vehicle crash resulted in the death of four Holmwood Technical High School students in Chudleigh, Manchester, on Wednesday.

"The tour is about sensitising the nation and educating the public on road safety. It is not just a one-off thing. It is part of a comprehensive plan that the ministry has to continuously keep awareness in the forefront of the minds of Jamaicans. Transport is in everything we do and we have to do it safely," said accident analyst statistician, Deidre Hudson-Sinclair.

Hudson-Sinclair pointed out that the public-education message is not only for pedestrians and private motorists, but also for operators of public-passenger vehicles.

NOT A NUMBERS GAME

"We are also really, really trying to put it out there to public -passenger vehicle operators, that it's time we speak out and tell them that we want to be driven safely, that we have a right. We're not just numbers. It's not a numbers game for us, we're people. I think the public-passenger drivers need to recognise that it's not a numbers game; it's people's lives they're carrying and they need to take good care," Hudson-Sinclair expressed.

A number of stops have been scheduled across the island, the first of which was yesterday at the LOJ Shopping Centre in Spanish Town, St Catherine. Voicemail and Tanya Stephens were slated to provide entertainment. The next stops are slated for October 26 in Port Maria, Ocho Rios, and St Ann's Bay; November 23 in Falmouth, Montego Bay, and Savanna-la-mar; and finally on December 14 in Mandeville, Santa Cruz, and Black River.

Coordinator of the Below 240 programme in the NRSC, Victor Anderson, said that during the tour not only will persons be able to benefit from important road-safety education, but they can win prizes.

"What we have done in terms of interaction with the audience is that we have given the Road Safety Unit a number of questions that they can put to the public about safely using the roadway. People are expected to answer these questions and will be given prizes," Anderson said.