THE National Road Safety Council (NRSC) this week launched its second Road Safety Poster Competition 2013, under the theme “Pedestrian Safety — the STREET SMART WAY!” The National Health Fund is the major sponsor of the initiative.

The competition is open to all students islandwide aged 6 to19 years old, and will run until Friday, June 21. It is designed to encourage sound road safety values in the youngsters, while increasing their awareness of the importance of responsible road usage.

The NRSC poster competition is also geared to motivate children to be proactive in protecting themselves while travelling, and to inspire their creativity.

The theme of the poster competition was specifically chosen to increase children’s awareness of the need to be responsible pedestrians as, using average figures, children comprise 30 per cent of all pedestrian deaths, each year.

“The data on road fatalities is showing repeatedly that the nation’s children are the most vulnerable road users. We need to put a stop to this alarming situation affecting our children, and the poster competition is one of the ways in which we are educating the children on their role and responsibility in pedestrian safety,” states Dr Lucien Jones, vice-chairman/convenor, NRSC.

He also expressed the hope that the poster competition would serve to heighten the awareness of all members of the public, about the need to be protective of children on the roads and to respect their rights as pedestrians.

The launch of the contest comes at a time when Jamaica’s latest road casualties report from the NRSC shows that, since the start of the year, there has been a 300 per cent increase in child pedestrian fatalities. These moved from one for the January 1 to May 20 period last year, to four for the corresponding period this year.

There is also a disturbing rise in child fatalities, which have moved up from six for the January 1 to May 20 period in 2012 to 11 for the same period this year. The figure represents an upswing of 85 per cent in child fatalities.

There is also an eight per cent increase in overall road fatalities, which have inched up from 96 between January 1 and May 20, 2012 to 104 for January 1 to May 20, 2012.

Expressing concern over child fatalities and the overall deaths due to road crashes, the NRSC vice-chairman/convenor is renewing his appeal for citizens to show more care and caution on the roads.

Meanwhile, Paula Fletcher, executive director, NRSC, is appealing to parents and teachers to encourage their young wards to enter the Competition: “The poster competition seeks to instill in children the need to play an active part in this vital life-saving initiative of road safety, so parents, the onus is on you to encourage the young ones to enter,” Fletcher asserts.

She expresses the belief that the poster competition “will not only make children more conscientious and useful users of the road, but will subsequently assist in creating more responsible adults for the future.”

Students can access entry forms at the NRSC website: https://www.nationalroadsafetycouncil.org.jm   or at the NRSC Blog: nrscjamaica. blogspot.com  . They may also get entry forms at other NRSC social media sites: https://Twitter.com/nrscjamaica   or https://Facebook.com/nrscjamaica .

Entries will be judged on the basis of relevance to the theme, creativity, road safety awareness, style, and presentation. Individual students can win between $10,000 to $30,000, as well as trophies, scholarships to programmes at the Edna Manley College of the Visual Arts, savings accounts, and gift baskets.