Like everyone else in Jamaica I am very concerned about the carnage on the Jamaican roads. I think we are on the verge of the worst epidemic in our history. Is there a lack of global effort to arrest and defeat this epidemic?

History records that in the Plague of Justinian 541 to 542 AD approximately 100 million people died, making it the worst epidemic in human history. Then there was the Black Plague in 1346 to 1350, which claimed the lives of approximately 50 million people. This was the second-worst recorded epidemic. The HIV/AIDS epidemic has accounted for just over 40 million lives between 1960 and 2019. The World Health Organization (WHO) tells us that approximately 1.35 million people die on the roads each year around the world. If we conservatively estimate that one million people died each year on the roads between 1960 and today, it would total approximately 60 million people in the past 60 years. This would make road fatalities the second-worst epidemic — relegating the Black Plague to third place. But, in addition to this chilling fact, another 40 million to 50 million people sustain serious life-changing injuries in motor vehicle crashes.

Frighteningly, the 1.35 million road deaths recorded by the WHO are more than seven per cent higher than the 1.26 million people who died on our roads in 2010. This was when the Decade of Action was started. As I understand it, the WHO’s Decade of Action was designed to implement strategies to reduce road fatalities.

Clearly, we are going in the wrong direction, and I believe that there is a lack of serious effort to reduce these fatalities. Albert Einstein said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” This insanity must stop. We must do something different, and we must start today. Failing this we will go down in history suffering the unfortunate fate as being the generation that allowed road fatalities to become the world’s worst epidemic.

Road fatalities in Jamaica stood at 425 up to Christmas Eve of 2019. What have we done differently since 2010? It has taken successive administrations well over 15 years to pass into law the new Road Traffic Act, yet we all agree that we have a problem.

As a country, we signed on to the Decade of Action and agreed, or should I say committed to the WHO to reduce road fatalities by 50 per cent by 2020. It has not happened. Unfortunately, instead of seeing a reduction we are seeing an increase: 1.3 million in 2011 to 1.35 million in 2016, and climbing in 2019.

Do our governments, past and present, not have the moral obligation to provide the vaccines to stem and control this epidemic? Any health professional will tell you that vaccines cost a lot of money. A former prime minister once said to us as a nation, when faced with massive expenditure to set the economy right, “It takes cash to care.” He was excoriated. But he spoke a profound truth that we have failed to accept, or even recognise.

If something is important to you, you will find a way; if not, you will find an excuse. Let’s not find any more excuses. Everyone needs to make that extra effort to know about the road safety vaccines. They are available in magazines, at conferences, at exhibitions, in training courses, etc. Let’s use them to arrest the carnage on our roads.

There are times in our lives when “the dead opens the eyes of the living”. A case in point is the most recent death of a motorcyclist who was a disc jock and a young woman who was a pedestrian with a bright future having just completed her studies to earn a first degree. That family is left with pain, hurt and a gap in a broken circle. Surely, this has not been the only crash that has devastated a family.

Our eyes must be opened by now and we must act with despatch and aggressively in order to make a difference as we approach 2020. If we want to make a difference tomorrow we must act today. We must make our roads safe for all road users, especially the most vulnerable ones. I believe that in life there are some things for which you don’t want to be known as number one. Let us do what we need to do now to leave that epidemic distinction to the Plague of Justinian.

Of note, fewer than 10 per cent of worldwide fatalities occurred in higher-income countries. Chief among them are the SUN countries (Sweden, the United Nations and the Netherlands). This indicates that the vaccines I spoke of earlier are very much available and higher-income countries are making good use of them. This is as good an opportunity as any other to utilise them with the full implementation of the new Road Traffic Act in early 2020 as is promised by our minister of transport.

Statistics from the Road Safety Unit in the Ministry of Transport and Mining indicate that we are losing our men at their most productive years. Surely, this is bound to affect our human resource development. Of the 425 fatalities from crashes so far this year 367 are males. This is just downright crazy!

If I was in charge of  Public Safety and Traffic Enforcement Branch I would use these statistics to inform my immediate course of action. Where do we begin to place the emphasis? The table attached tells the story. There are areas that require overwhelming and consistent presence of the police, especially during the festive season. Utilise covert operations in unmarked cars to create doubt in the minds of the motorists. They won’t know where the police will be and what they are driving. This will aid to catch the motorist as he/she commits an infringement.

So, it’s over to you, Deputy Commissioner. Like I said before, “If something is important to you, you will find a way; if not you will find an excuse. No more excuses, please.

V George Palmer works as a part of senior management team in public relations and communications.