Three people lost their lives in road crashes on Christmas Day this year, pushing the death toll to 362, compared to 419, or a 14 per cent decline, for the January 1 to December 25 period last year.

The Jamaica Constabulary Force’s Public Safety and Traffic Enforcement Branch (PSTEB) reported that about 6:20 am on December 25 a motorcycle driver and his pillion passenger died in a crash on the Nompariel main road in Westmoreland.

According to PSTEB, the driver of the motorcycle allegedly undertook a motor truck, lost control of the motorcycle and collided in the left embankment of the road.

The report said both the driver of the motorcycle and the pillion passenger, both aged 22, fell onto the road surface and received head and body injuries. They were both transported to hospital where they were pronounced dead.

Earlier that morning in Kingston Western, about 4:15 am, a motor car collided with a female pedestrian as she attempted to cross Marcus Garvey Drive. The pedestrian fell on top of the windscreen of the motorcar then onto the road. She received multiple injuries and was taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival.

The road fatalities occurred despite a plea from Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness for Jamaicans to exercise greater care on the roads.

“As you move about to visit loved ones and to participate in the festivities, please, please, please drive carefully on our roads. Every Christmas we see a spike in road fatalities,” the prime minister said in his Christmas message.

National Road Safety Council (NRSC) Vice-Chairman Dr Lucien Jones, in his message for the period, said the reality that three people died in two collisions on Christmas Day “reminds us of the dangers of driving on our roads where so far 362 precious lives have been lost — 25 to date in December, historically one of the deadliest months in the year”.

“Last year at this time 419 persons had died. We welcome a 14 per cent decline in road deaths for 2024 to date; and with another five days to go it is beginning to look like under 370 road deaths, compared to last year’s figure of 425. If that does happen, it will mean that 55 less persons will die in 2024, which is a huge number,” Jones said.

Dr Jones lamented that despite the decline, the country has a very long way to go to achieve the World Health Organization (WHO) mandate for all countries to reduce fatalities by 50 per cent by 2030.

“To achieve this, Jamaica would have to record no more than 220 road deaths in six years’ time. And the only way to make such a massive decline is to maintain our strategy of employing the safe systems approach to reducing road deaths and fatalities,” Dr Jones said.

He noted that in that context, the Government, through the efforts of the Ministry of National Security, has made significant improvements in the traffic ticketing systems that will help in providing for safe speeds on the roads.

“This as the chances of being caught speeding, and a warrant issued for your arrest if you are ticketed and neither pay at the tax office nor at the courts, has significantly increased, along with the possibility of having your licenses suspended if you accumulate excess demerit points on your licences. So we are making strides to ensure safe speeds on our roads. Not done by a long way, but moving in the right direction,” he said.

Recently, private sector company World Net Tyres and Accessories Limited, a subsidiary of Worldnet Microfinancing Limited, embarked on a safe tyre initiative in collaboration with the Route Taxi Association of Jamaica in an effort to help reduce road deaths.

According to Delroy Josephs, general manager of Worldnet Traders Group, it is important for motor vehicles, especially taxis, to be fitted with proper tyres to ensure safety.

“We know that faulty tyres play a significant part in crashes. The safety unit will tell you, don’t touch the road with peeled off tyres. Make sure your tyres are road worthy. It’s the only thing you can rely on when you want to stop the vehicle whether the road is dry, wet, slippery, you name it,” he said.

David Beckford, a tyre technician employed to the company, told the Jamaica Observer that he frequently sees customers come in with worn tyres.

“Sometimes a customer will drive in and say they want one tyre but when you look on the other tyres, they wear off to the wire. They don’t observe this because the outside looks good but the inside is bad. It is always good to rotate your tyres every two to three months,” he said.

“Having good air pressure is necessary. It is very important because you don’t want to be driving on the highway, doing 80/90 and your tyre just blows out. You have no control. The vehicle basically will do anything it wants to do with you after that point. Pay more attention to your tyres,” Beckford appealed.

Route Taxi Association of Jamaica (RTAJ) President Sophia Campbell said it was important for public passenger vehicles (PPVs) to be fitted with proper tyres, rims and front-end parts.

“The reason for this is that they carry a lot of passengers so a lot of lives are entrusted in their hands. It is important that their vehicle is able to carry passengers safely. Safety is paramount so we collaborated with Worldnet Tyres and negotiated with them so they can offer the sector tyres at affordable prices and not just affordable prices but on credit plans. Right now a PPV operator can come in and credit their rims, batteries, and tyres and have 21 days to pay, only World Net Tyres is doing that for the sector,” she said.

“It is very difficult to afford tyres. Fares are very low. A lot of the vehicles are driven by employed drivers so what you find is that the owner gets little or nothing. The owner gives them the vehicle, they drive it and the owner indicates an amount they should pay weekly. Majority of them are not getting that. Especially for those vehicles that are not driven by the owners, those are the ones that tend to get out of shape quickly,” she said.

“What the drivers do is overwork the vehicles because they want to pocket as much money. The owners find it very very difficult to keep the vehicles in good condition. Where I sit at the umbrella level at the RTAJ, we have a responsibility to advocate, negotiate and to try and find ways in which we can assist them to ensure that their vehicles are up and running in good condition on our roads,” Campbell said.