PEDESTRIANS, at 37 per cent, is the highest category of road users killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2010, even as the National Road Safety Council (NRSC) celebrates a decrease in traffic fatalities this year.

At the same time, NRSC executive director Paula Fletcher has expressed disappointment in the council’s failure to meet its objective of under 300 road fatalities in a campaign launched in 2008. That target has not been realised in more than a decade.

According to data from the Transport Ministry’s Road Safety Unit (RSU), 310 deaths have so far been recorded for this year.

Of that amount 116 were pedestrians, up from last year’s figure of 83. Private motorcar drivers, passengers, motorcyclists, and pedal cyclists rounded off the top five fatality group with figures of 51, 51, 38, and 23, respectively.

Pedestrians, however, is the only group in which fatalities have increased since 2008, Fletcher said.

“We need to have an analysis of that and we are planning a seminar in early January to find out what is really happening to pedestrians. Is it that they are more reckless? Because there really is a spike,” said Fletcher, noting that the number of pedestrians killed has risen by 39 per cent.

“We will have to focus in terms of our strategies for next year as it relates to pedestrians. And at the same time pedestrians need to take greater responsibility for their actions on the roads,” said Fletcher.

Fletcher said, however, that despite the disappointment in failing to meet its under 300 target, the group is still satisfied with the steady decline in road fatalities since the implementation of the programme.

“It is still a major improvement; this year we have exceeded the figure by 10. Last year we had 347 fatalities. So that should show you the decline,” she continued.

In the meantime, Deidre Sinclair, analyst at the RSU, said that the phenomenon behind the high number of pedestrian deaths this year was twofold.

“The pedestrians were at fault because they do things like step off in the road in the path of the incoming vehicles because they are talking on their phones or are using other gadgets,” Sinclair noted.

“And there are also the motorists who fail to slow down and be observant of these persons on the road,” she continued, noting that collisions at speeds upwards of 80 kmp often result in serious injuries and fatalities.

Sinclair reiterated the RSU’s support to the NRSC in finding solutions to deal with the many road safety challenges, specifically those regarding pedestrians.

She bemoaned this year’s failure of the under-300 fatalities campaign, explaining that up until summer the figures had been on target.

“It’s disappointing because by the middle of the year we were fine but by summer the numbers spiked. I think Jamaicans just need to become more aware and know that these are peoples’ lives that are being lost every year in road accidents,” she said.

Five pillion cyclists, five public transportation passengers, nine cmc passengers, and six cmc drivers also added to the number of persons killed in traffic accidents this year.

–Corey Robinson