MINISTER PICKERSGILL LAUNCHES ROAD SAFETY PROGRAMME

Minister Robert Pickersgill was among a group of road safety officials who launched the “Think Before You Drive” Road Safety Programme on Friday, May 19 at the Terra Nova Hotel.

The campaign seeks to identify the main causes of crashes and highlight actions that can make the difference between life and death. In this respect, the distribution of leaflets designed to encourage good road safety habits as well as tyre gauges have been done.

The campaign is being spearheaded by the Jamaica Automobile Association (JAA) and the Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS) in association with NEM, the Road Safety Unit, the National Road Safety Council as well as the Ministry of Housing, Transport, Water and Works. International partners in this venture are the International Federation of Automobile Associations Foundation and tyre company, Bridgestone International.

Speaking at the launch, on behalf of Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller, Minister Pickersgill said that the PM consented to chair the NRSC, one of the stakeholders in the road safety campaign because of the gravity of said environment in the country. In driving home the point, Minister Pickersgill asked, “How many homes are there where the fathers have died in road crashes…maimed for life and unable to provide for their families…what happens to the children in those households?”

The Minister also pointed to the economic costs to the country as a result of accidents. He noted that an average of J$500 million in direct costs is spent annually in our hospitals to care for persons injured in road crashes. Such costs in hospital stay can range anywhere from between J$3,000 to $128,000 upwards depending on the severity of the injuries.

Turning to accident statistics, the Minister explained that there has been some improvement in the fatality rate over the last 3 years. The average annual rate decrease for the years 2002-2005 was approximately 7%. In 2002, there were 408 fatalities compared to 326 in 2005. To address this, he called for the consistent formulation and implementation of strategies and programmes, institutional building, strengthening of the multi-sectoral framework and the widening of partnerships both locally and internationally. Continuing with a look at the accident statistics, Minister Pickersgill mentioned that for the past 15 years, the gender breakdown of the fatality rate is 81% males to 19% females.

Another high risk group for accidents are children and elderly pedestrians. For the past 5 years, pedestrians have accounted for approximately 30% of the fatality rate and of that amount, a large number are children. This prompted the Minister to pronounce that this is not a good position to be in and that as a nation, we should seek to protect the vulnerable among us including our children.

On the global level, road traffic accidents claim approximately 1.2 million lives per year and seriously injure 20-50 million per year. A World Bank Report projects that road fatalities will increase by more than 65% between the years 2000 and 2020. The study noted that rates are accelerating rapidly in developing countries and are estimated to rise by more than 80% by the year 2020.

Minister Pickersgill turned to Government efforts in addressing road safety issues. In this regard, he said that a National Road Safety Policy was passed in 2004. The policy has been developed in accordance with the 5 E’s strategy for the prevention and reduction of traffic collisions which are:
• Engineering and Traffic Environment
• Education and Information
• Enforcement and Legislation
• Emergency Response and
• Evaluation and other comprehensive actions.

A Cabinet Road Safety Committee chaired by Minister Pickersgill was also re-convened to guide the implementation of the Policy. Public Education has also been and is being used to deal with the dismal road safety environment.

In speaking about the accident scenario in the island, the Minister noted that that there was a change in the language being used to describe accidents. In that respect, a call was made to use the word ‘CRASH’ or ‘COLLISION’ instead of the word ‘ACCIDENT’. Continuing, he said, “It is not an accident if persons speed, drink and drive, overtake recklessly, disobey traffic signals or drive without using their seatbelt and cause injury and death.” “The key message”, he said “is that road deaths and injuries can be predicted and can be prevented.”