MAY PEN, Clarendon — With the country recording under 400 road fatalities last year, there is hope that this year that number will be reduced even further to under 300.

Vice-chairman of the National Road Safety Council Dr Lucien Jones on Thursday told the
Jamaica Observer that the under 300 target is “ambitious”, but he is optimistic that it can be done.

“We should set an ambitious target and invite the Government and private sector to help us achieve it. That target would be 20 per cent down from last year,” said Jones.

His comments came on the heels of at least three road fatalities on the first two days of the new year.

In the latest incident a pedal cyclist died as a result of injuries sustained after he was hit by a Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) service vehicle on Thursday morning in Clarendon.

Up to press time, the identity of the pedal cyclist had not yet been released by the police.

A police report said about 1:00 am a Toyota Land Cruiser assigned to the JDF was proceeding in an easterly direction and the pedal cyclist was travelling westerly on Manchester Avenue when upon reaching near the intersection with Penguin Key both the Land Cruiser and the pedal cycle collided resulting in injuries to the cyclist.

He was taken to the May Pen Hospital where he died while undergoing treatment.

Jones said two people died on the first day of 2025 on the nation’s roads.

“Two pedestrians died on New Year’s Day, one in St Ann and one in Kingston,” added Jones.

He said the country, for the first time in years recorded, under 400 road fatalities in a year with 365 deaths on the nation’s roads in 2024.

“We are down 50 from 2023. In 2025 425 people died in 2022, it was 486 and in 2012 it was 487. This is the first time in three years that we went below 400,” added Jones.

He pointed to the electronic ticketing system and enforcement of the Road Traffic Act as two factors which accounted for the reduction in road fatalities last year.

“In terms of the reason it is going to be spread across many areas. My own view is that the fact that we have a ticketing system that is operating more efficiently in the sense that when you get a ticket, it is done electronically, so the kind of mistakes that used to plague the system and cause all kinds of trouble have largely been removed,” said Jones.

“The ticket now moves to the tax office, if you don’t go and pay, it goes to the court, if you don’t attend court then a warrant is issued for your arrest. I believe in that context where there are no more certain consequences for disobedience. In that context, I believe people are behaving better on the roads. In that context, I believe we have had some kind of reduction,” he added.

According to Jones, the enforcement of the road traffic rules on motorcyclists is also paying off.

“There may be other reasons, but that is my working theory, it has to do with the system and police enforcement. We have had a reduction in motorcycle deaths, so it is a multifaceted thing that has happened…People are driving more carefully,” said Jones.