Road deaths down in St James
ST JAMES, Jamaica — The parish of St James, which had the third most recorded deaths on the nation’s roads in 2022, is now seeing a 67 per cent reduction since the start of this year.
According to data from the Road Safety Unit (RSU) in the Ministry of Transport and Mining, between January 1 and February 23 of this year, two deaths occurred in St James versus six for the comparable period last year.
“Since the start of the year there were only two fatalities in St James — a motorcyclist and a pedestrian. There were no PPV [public passenger vehicle] fatalities recorded, which is good, and we want to ensure that remains the same,” stated education and information officer at the RSU and the Island Traffic Authority (ITA) in the Ministry of Transport and Mining Dontae Matthews.
He was addressing a town hall meeting organised by the Transport Operators Development Sustainable Services (TODSS). The sparsely attended meeting was held at the Mount Salem Community Centre on Thursday.
In breaking down the data, Matthews said the man who died during the motorcycle crash was under the age of 29, while the pedestrian was over the age of 75.
Of the crashes in which 50 people lost their lives last year in St James, 29 took place in six areas considered crash hot spots. At 10, the Rose Hall main road had the largest number of deaths followed by seven on the Ironshore main road.
With young people accounting for most road fatalities, the ITA is currently on a drive to reduce the numbers by taking its safety message into schools. In January, York Castle High School in St Ann was the first to participate in a written road code test. Irwin High in St James is expected to be added to the list next month. The aim is to launch the programme in one high school of each parish by the end of the year.
A total of 488 people who lost their lives on the nation’s road last year.
In addition to St James coming in at the third most recorded deaths, Kingston and St Andrew was second on the list, while St Catherine had the unenviable record of being the deadliest parish.