GRANGE HILL, Westmoreland — Security and road safety stakeholders say the Ministry of National Security’s multimillion-dollar investment in a motorcycle outreach and training programme in Westmoreland has begun to bear fruit.

The ministry spent $52 million to establish a motorcycle training facility at the Petersfield HEART/NSTA Trust academy and two satellite centres — Culloden HEART academy and Grange Hill High School — all in Westmoreland.

The parish leads the country in motorcycle fatalities.

Despite this statistic, however, it was disclosed during a training session at Grange Hill High School on Sunday that none of the more than 70 participants in the certification programme have died in motorcycle crashes since the initiative started in August.

“That is great news. Before that, every day there was a dead man down here in Westmoreland so it tells me that the training session or programme that you are doing is bearing fruits,” said Senior Superintendent Courtney Coubrie of the Public Safety and Traffic Enforcement Branch.

Thaddeti Tulloch, project portfolio manager at the Ministry of National Security, expressed similar sentiments.

“We are very pleased and we have already seen the downward trending, and we are going to continue until it reaches an all-time low,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

Tulloch further stated that without the training programme, a number of the participants would not be alive.

“So, the ministry was the primary sponsor in terms of making the financial investment, and we worked with the efforts of our collaborative partners to get this done. So in terms of return on investment, we would have saved, just by being here, some of these very guys. Without this initiative they would not be here so we are saving lives — and that is a part of the public safety mandate of the ministry,” he argued.

Data from the police show that between January and November of this year Westmoreland recorded 57 fatalities of which 32 involved motorcyclists, in comparison to 45 road fatalities last year, 22 of whom were motorcyclists.

Apart from the training on Sunday, the national security ministry also handed over a motorcycle training simulator to Grange Hill High School to enhance competence and certification for bikers.

In August, the ministry handed over a motorcycle simulation centre to the Petersfield Vocational Training Centre in the parish. Following that, the Culloden HEART Academy satellite facility in Whitehouse was commissioned into service.

The programme has been supported by motorcyclists across the parish, many of whom have been turning out for training. The bikers, upon completion of training, are given a certificate and two helmets provided by the security ministry.

Errol Stewart, principal of Grange Hill High School, said the HEART/NSTA Trust Level 1 Motorcycle Training Simulator programme that is being offered at the school is being conducted through the Petersfield HEART/NSTA Trust academy.

Liston Coke, a motorcyclist who has completed his training, told the Observer that the course was worthwhile.

“It was great. I learned a lot of new things such as safety because, you know, mi want to live to see a next day,” said the Grange Hill resident who has been a bike taxi operator since 2017.

Plans are afoot to expand the training programme to other parishes in a bid to address the issue of motorcycle fatalities.