IT’s a highway that takes its name from a great man. But for many motorists and nearby residents, Kingston’s Nelson Mandela Highway conjures up a different set of images: Death, broken bodies, and broken hearts.

The four-lane highway runs for about five miles between Six Mile Bridge and the Jose Marti Roundabout.

A deadly mix of wide lanes, high speeds, and poor driving make it Jamaica’s most dangerous stretch of road, says Kenute Hare, an accident analyst with the Ministry of Transport and Works.

Twenty-four people died on the highway between 1999 and 2001 in 21 fatal accidents, and that included eight pedestrians, he said. This year, he said, the highway carnage has been trending upwards: Six people killed in five fatal accidents.

“The Nelson Mandela Highway has really been acting up.”

That’s not news to Pobleto Gregory, 32, who sells snacks and drinks to motorists by the intersection heading to Caymanas Park.

Two months ago, he says, he saw a car hit and kill a seller named Michael.

“Him stand up beside a truck, selling the truck man peanuts, and the next driver come up and kill ’em.”

“He died right on the spot.”

On Nelson Mandela Highway, it’s easy to find people with such stories.

“Upon this highway my brother died,” said Sherrik Bryce, 21, who lives in a house along the road.

“He was riding a bicycle, and a car run off the road and kill him,” she said, recalling how her 23 year-old brother, Donald Paul Douglas, died two years ago.

Hare blames irresponsible motorists for many of the accidents. Drivers are guilty of excessive speed, careless lane changes, improper U-turns, tail-gating, mechanical defects, and collisions with traffic while entering and exiting the highway.

“People are losing control of their vehicles,” he said. “They are usually colliding with other vehicles, with light posts, with fixed objects.”

Nationwide, the Ministry of Health ranked fatal traffic accidents as the 12th leading cause of death for the general population in 1999.

To reduce the accident rate, Inspector W R Brown, of the highway’s Ferry District station, said police recently stepped up their presence, and are using radar guns.

But keeping traffic accidents down is a challenge, he said, because over the years traffic has been steadily increasing. And more cars, he said, mean more accidents.

Inspt Brown agreed that irresponsible drivers cause many of the fatalities: “People driving in a bad way, causing other people to swerve (lose control) and go onto the other side of the road.”

And with motorists driving at 50 mph or more, he noted, collisions are invariably serious.

Across Jamaica last year, 361 people died in road accidents, and a third were pedestrians. So far this year, more than 175 people have been killed in more than 159 accidents, Hare said.

As this rate, he added, fatal road accidents may well double this year.

But that won’t deter Gregory, the roadside vendor, from selling near the traffic-choked spot were his friend Michael died.

“It’s my living, and I have to continue.”