Road users urged to take care as year nears end

Thursday, December 29, 2011

THE Road Safety Unit in the Ministry of Transport and Works is imploring motorists and other road users to exercise care on the nation's roads.

Education and information officer with the unit, Julian Thompson said that even though Jamaica has again missed the target of less than 300 road fatalities for the year, the island is still on track to recording fewer road deaths, when compared to 2010.

"We are now at 301 fatalities. We wanted to keep the fatalities below 300. Nonetheless, we're still trending in the right direction as... we have seen where we are constantly decreasing year after year. Last year, we had 319 fatalities and this year, we are projected to fall well below that, so even though we did not achieve the 300 mark, we are still imploring all road users [continue being] be mindful of their safety responsibilities on the roads," he stated.

The Road Safety Unit has been working to keep road fatalities under the 300 mark through its 'Below 300' campaign.

Similar targets were set for 2009 and 2010 but they were also missed. The feat was last achieved in 1999 when there were 295 casualties.

The mission of the Road Safety Unit is to promote and foster an orderly and disciplined traffic culture that is conducive to the development of a safe traffic environment, through the conceptualisation, design and dissemination of a sustained programme of public information, education in schools, legislation, accident information and research.