THE National Road Safety Council (NRSC) is renewing its call for Jamaicans to exercise greater care and caution on the roads, to stem the continuing loss of lives and injuries facing the country.

This NRSC appeal comes on the heels of Monday night’s multiple-fatalities and injuries along the Llandovery main road, St Ann.

A horrific crash of two mini-uses on Monday claimed four lives and left some 34 people wounded. The incident took the road death toll to 300 consequently rendering the NRSC’s Under-300 death project a failure.

“There are no winners, as a result of speeding and reckless driving,” NRSC vice-chairman Dr Lucien Jones commented.

“We must stop the senseless waste of the lives of our people and the untold hardships to our families, by behaving more responsibly on the roadways,” he said.

Dr Jones further stressed that the Christmas festivities should not allow road users to abandon adherence to road safety measures.

The Under-300 project, launched in October 2008, encourages a reduction in road fatalities to less than 300 per year, through public education, improvements to legislation, enforcement, and driver training. Road fatalities since the start of this year is 301 compared with 303 for the same period last year.

Last year 343 people were killed in motor vehicle crashes.

In the meantime, the NRSC is hailing the recent staging of the First Global Ministerial Road Safety Conference in Moscow, as a necessary step in mobilising public support on the local and international scenes.

Road crash pandemic is claiming over 1.3 million lives and in excess of 50 million injuries worldwide each year.

The Jamaican delegation, headed by Transport Minister Mike Henry, used the conference to add its voice to the call for the United Nations to declare a decade of Road Safety, by the adoption of the Moscow Declaration.

Pointing out that deaths and injuries on roads in Jamaica and elsewhere in the world are a major public health issue, Dr Jones, who was a member of the delegation, said that the event allowed Jamaicans to forge partnerships with individual countries and international donor communities, which may provide funding to support national road safety investments and technical assistance programmes.

The team was also exposed to best practices in general road safety projects as well as road safety policing strategies.

Dr Jones added that Henry, at the conference, outlined the necessity for health officials to pay a prominent and proactive role in support for, and leadership in road safety initiatives.

Despite a downward trend in fatalities locally, provisional data indicates that the number of people attending accident and emergency units at Government hospitals, consequent to motor vehicle accidents, has risen nearly 40 per cent, underscoring the urgency of a liaison between the Transport and Health Ministries.