COMMISSIONER of the Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) Stewart Beckford has cautioned motorists against speeding on the roads this Christmas, lamenting that accident scenes are becoming increasingly gory.

“The Jamaica Fire Brigade is involved in responding to motor vehicle accidents along our roadways, and I think we are seeing too many of those these days. These scenes are getting more gory; persons seem to be driving a lot faster. I’m not sure if it’s because of the new highways but the speeds that we are seeing on the roads are resulting in some of these accidents. I am imploring motorists to take it easy on our highways this Christmas,” Beckford appealed yesterday while delivering remarks at a quarterly press briefing of the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development at its Hagley Park Road offices in Kingston.

The fire chief said already this year the brigade has responded to approximately 946 motor vehicle accidents across Jamaica, a 12 per cent increase over the 846 in 2018.

At the same time, Beckford said while there has been a 19 per cent decrease in the number of people killed in fires this year, the brigade was still concerned.

“We remain very concerned about our citizens who have been killed because of these fires. While we would have seen a 19 per cent decrease in the figures for this year, the fact remains that 30 people have been killed in fires — 24 adults and six children,” Beckford said.

He also said 54 people were injured in fires this year, compared to 91 in 2018, while 2,082 people lost their houses in fires as against 2,060 in 2018.

The fire chief said between January and November the brigade responded to 12,881 fire calls, 798 more than 2018. He said a number of these fires were due to the extended drought the country experienced between January and September of this year.

— Alicia Dunkley-Willis