KINGSTON, Jamaica – Vice chairman of the National Road Safety Council (NRSC) Dr Lucien Jones has suggested that Jamaica look at implementing a safe systems approach, which has been adopted by countries resulting in low road fatality rates.

Dr Jones’ suggestion comes in the wake of the death of six people in the Bog Walk gorge and young medical doctor Megan Auden on Saturday.

According to a NRSC press release, the “woefully long-overdue Road Traffic Bill”, when adopted into law, will play an important part in the safe systems approach, so as to legislate for hands-free cell phone use, a new driver training system, suspension of licenses for those who exceed the prescribed number of demerit points.

Dr Jones said that “a critical issue hampering safety on our roads is the impunity with which drivers break the rules of the road. Many of them are repeat offenders, and they get away with it. Too many times the end result is death or serious injury. Add to this the general indiscipline in the society and this is a recipe for disaster.

“To help to correct this situation the glitches in the traffic ticketing system must be sorted out with great urgency. Driver behaviour will not improve if offenders can collect tickets like stamps, in some cases, up to 900 tickets, and even 1,500.”

According to Dr Jones, the Bog Walk gorge tragedy brings the need for safer roads into sharp focus.

 “We must never again build a road where there are no protective rails which would have prevented even ‘mad driving’ from resulting in death. There are well respected institutions which will do an assessment of a nation’s roads.”

Dr Jones also emphasised the “dire need” to implement electronic surveillance in this country to significantly reduce red light running, speeding and improper lane changing.

The latest statistics from the Road Safety Unit show some 214 road fatalities since the start of the year.