MONTEGO BAY, St James

Senior Superintendent of Police in charge of traffic, Elan Powell, is warning motorists that they are not allowed to drive above 80 km per hour on the partially completed Rose Hall segment of the North Coast Highway.

The highway doesn’t have any signs indicating the speed limit, but Powell said that the North Coast Highway in St James would not follow the suit of sections of Highway 2000 in Kingston, where the speed limit is 110 km per hour.

“Speed limit signs and other signages will be erected very soon, and I am pretty sure that the NWA will put in the cat’s eyes,” the senior traffic cop promised. “One of the lessons we learned when the Ocho Rios to Discovery Bay leg was just completed, was that a number of collisions occurred on it because the signage was very poor.”

Added Powell: “But once this improved and we complemented that with police presence, we saw a significant reduction. Since November, we haven’t had any deaths on that road. Our plan is to replicate that on this side of the road.”

At the same time, Paula Fletcher, executive director of the National Road Safety Council (NRSC), has renewed her call for cameras to detect traffic violators.

“You cannot have a policeman on every corner so this really would supplement the human resource base of the traffic department of the Jamaica Constabulary Force,” she said.

“(They would also help to ensure) that drivers can be brought to answer for certain types of behaviour, which are illegal under the Road Traffic Act, namely speeding… and breaking the red lights.”

Added Fletcher: “It is very, very crucial. It is inevitable. I would think that we have to begin to take the step because we have already taken the decision to implement it.”

Powell has promised to pull out all the stops to catch motorists who pay scant regard to proper overtaking.

“Most accidents happen by head-on (collisions), and head-on is usually a result of poor overtaking. We want to implore drivers to cherish the new road, but don’t use it to your own detriment,” the SSP warned.

Last year, 366 road fatalities were recorded on the Jamaican roads – 40 more than the previous year. Traffic accidents claimed the lives of 27 people on the roads of St James, six more than the previous year. The police say they issued 277,994 tickets for traffic offences last year.

At the Coral Gardens Police station, which captures much of the activity along the Rose Hall segment of the North Coast Highway, a total of 79 incidents – one of which resulted in a fatality – have been recorded along the Rose Hall main road since the start of this year. At the Barrett Town Police Station, 11 more were recorded.

Recently, during heavy early morning traffic, a white Toyota Corolla station wagon, travelling along the temporary one-way lane in Flankers towards Montego Bay, swerved into the back of a similar vehicle travelling in the same direction. Noone was injured in that accident.

This was not the case on January 3, when a dark blue Toyota Corolla, overtaking a line of traffic along the Lilliput main road, slammed head-on into a white Camry travelling in the opposite direction. The two drivers had to be admitted to hospital, while a passenger succumbed to her injuries.