Petra-Keane Williams

In Jamaica, road traffic accidents are beginning to burden the country's resources. The Ministry of Health says between 1.5 and two per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) was spent caring for patients with road traffic injuries last year. The estimated economic cost worldwide is between US$64.5 and US$100 billion.

"Road travel brings society benefits, but the price society is paying for it is very high," a recent study by the World Health Organi-sation (WHO) points out.

Dr. Lucien Jones, vice-president of the National Road Safety Council, who recently returned from a road safety summit for Latin American and the Caribbean countries in Costa Rica, says it is the world's resolve to minimise this ill.

"The world community is deter-mined that we are not going to go the route of what happened with the HIV/AIDS crisis where the world reacted too slowly," he asserts.

The WHO report says that every three minutes a child dies on the world's roads, numbering among the 3,000 people daily. Many of these people, the study says, are pedestrians, pedal cyclists and motorcyclists.

Speaking at the forum, Ealan Powell, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) in charge of traffic, says poor engineering, lack of education and enforcement handicaps are the major contributors to road traffic accidents.

The police officer says many accidents on highways are either head-on collisions, the hitting down of a pedestrian or one motorist running into the side of another. He suggests the building of buffers and pedestrian passages on all highways.

SSP Powell has also expressed the need for proper lighting and signs on the nation's road, which he says are not safe.

Police on a mission

SSP Powell says the police are on a mission to reduce road fatalities. Despite conceding that the 280,000 traffic tickets issued last year suggests that people are not taking road safety seriously, he says the police have embarked on a programme to prosecute people for not using protective devices such as seat belts and helmets.

Similarly, the Road Safety Unit at the Ministry of Health, the Transport Authority and the Jamaica Automobile Association (JAA) say they are doing their bit to ensure lives are saved and injuries are prevented on the roads.

Mr. Allan Beckford, the associa-tion's president, says they have embarked on a 'Think Before You Drive' campaign which is geared toward a reduction in road accidents.

The programme involves en-couraging the use of seat belts, discouraging drunk driving and speeding. The JAA also says paying careful attention to the condition of tyres is important, and, accordingly, has commenced the distribution of 100,000 tyre pressure gauges, noting that over or underinflation of tyres may lead to accidents.

In the meantime, Petra-Keane Williams, communication and customer services manager at the Traffic Authority, says additional examiners have been called up from the Island traffic authority to supplement their number in a bid to help monitor the fitness and operation of public passenger vehicles.

- D.L.