FALMOUTH, Trelawny – Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller on Thursday officially opened the 75-kilometre stretch of the Northern Coastal Highway – Ocho Rios, St Ann to Greenside, Trelawny – with a warning to motorists that careless and irresponsible driving on the country’s highways would not be tolerated.

“While we welcome the benefits of the new highways and the fact that it will facilitate quicker travel, it should not be taken as some kind of licence for careless and irresponsible driving,” Simpson Miller said. “Fast driving invariably ends up being dangerous driving with deadly consequences, so we must maintain and drive within the limits of the law, and show courtesy to other road users,” added the prime minister.

Noting that the number of road fatalities so far this year has already surpassed that of the previous year, the prime minister warned that the security forces would be out in their numbers to ensure that speeding does not occur on the highways.

“In 2005, total road fatalities were 326, and up to the eighth of December the figure stood at 335,” said Simpson Miller, during the ceremony to mark the opening of the roadway at Retreat Heights, Trelawny.

That section of the highway was completed at a cost of US$98 million.

The completed section of the roadway forms part

of Segment Two of the 270-kilometre Northern Coastal Highway Improvement Project that connects Negril, Westmoreland to Port Antonio, Portland.

The highway project is divided into three segments. Segment one runs from Negril to Montego Bay; segment two from Montego Bay to Ocho Rios, while segment three covers Ocho Rios to Port Antonio. Segment two, however, is divided into four sections.

The section that runs from Greenside to Montego Bay is expected to be completed by December 2007, while segment three is scheduled to be finished in June 2008. Segment one was completed in 2002.

The entire project is expected to be completed at a cost of US$300 million.

On Thursday, Simpson Miller argued that the

project would provide a springboard for the social and economic development in areas including agriculture, tourism and construction.

Meanwhile, she said the government would not only be placing emphasis on highway projects, but will shortly embark on a programme to address the country’s minor road network.

” Now that we have done so well with our highways and our toll roads, it is now time for us to turn to our community roads, and our housing scheme roads so that the people in the communities will be able to access the highways and

toll roads,” said the prime minister.