THE Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) yesterday joined the National Road Safety Council NRSC in its quest to reduce traffic crashes by signing a Road Safety Charter to encourage safe road practices by private sector employees.

“The tremendous impact from road crashes result in missed opportunities for development and real growth in our gross domestic product,” PSOJ president Joseph Matalon said at the Jamaica House signing.

Matalon contended that although traffic crashes rates were declining “we still have a long way to go in achieving the level of safety on our roads that all of us have a desire to see.”

According to the PSOJ president it was because of the public and private concern about road safety that his association felt the memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the NRSC was an ideal approach to help combat the effect of injuries on the island’s roads.

Matalon said that under the MOU the PSOJ was committed to engage membership organisations and corporate members to “undertake actions to implement proactively measures and activities to ensure safe road practices among their employees.”

He urged employers to ensure that employees were made aware of the road safety charter and hoped members would see it as “an investment rather than an expenditure.”

Prime Minister Bruce Golding, chairman of the NRSC, lamented the number of road deaths, saying that traffic crashes robbed the nation of human potential that could one day be of service to the nation.

Acknowledging yesterday’s partnership as important, Golding said that he hoped to see public passenger associations such as taxis and mini bus associations enter into a similar agreement with the NRSC.

He praised the police for their continued vigilance and attributed the presence on the roads as pivotal in the trending down of crashes.

Golding argued that contrary to common belief, road crashes were not unavoidable.

“We would like to challenge that notion,” he said. “Road accidents perhaps represent the most preventable cause of deaths. If every road user obey the road code and use the road with care and consideration for others… accidents would become a rarity if they do happen at all,” Golding contended.

In the meantime road deaths to February 3 stood at 28 from 17 fatal crashes.

Over the same period last year 34 people died from 32 fatal crashes.