Adults really shouldn’t need to be spoon-fed, particularly on matters vital to preserving their lives. However, there exists many humans who hold the mistaken belief that they are immortal, and therefore they flutter around with reckless abandon.

That insouciance, however, eventually catches up with those individuals and they suffer the consequences which, in too many instances, are fatal.

It is against that background that we commend the National Helmet Wearing Coalition for its continued efforts to instil in Jamaicans the importance of wearing safety helmets when driving motorcycles.

The most recent effort of the coalition — a partnership between JN Foundation and the National Road Safety Council with funding from the FIA Foundation (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile) — was a regional think tank titled ‘Heads Up!’ held at AC Hotel Kingston.

The two-day forum, we are told, was staged out of rising concerns about motorcycle crashes across the Caribbean and Latin America.

The forum heard that motorcycle crashes account for close to a third of road fatalities in Jamaica, particularly the deaths of men in their prime productive years.

The data, of course, is startling and as, JN Foundation General Manager Ms Claudine Allen rightly said, “This is now an economic issue” as “these deaths are creating an invisible but heavy burden” on regional economies which are already under strain.

“We can’t afford to keep losing our most productive citizens on the roads,” Ms Allen said. The challenge is how do we reverse this plunge into self-destructive behaviour.

We believe that the recent forum, aimed at tackling head-on the challenge of motorcycle safety — particularly helmet-wearing, helmet-testing and enforcement, regional collaboration and youth education — is one of the strategies that can help. As such, we encourage the coalition to continue the programme.

That effort, we hold, needs to be accompanied by strict enforcement of the law, for it is a breach of the Road Traffic Act to operate a motorcycle and travel as a pillion passenger without a protective helmet.

The fact that we still see so many people operating motorcycles without protective helmets suggests a deficiency in enforcement, which is highly surprising, given the increased number of police on our roads these days and the almost inflexible approach to some traffic breaches.

Additionally, we believe there is need for more focused and consistent public education regarding the danger of serious injury and death from reckless use of the roads and neglecting to use protective gear. A fitting message, we believe, is the World Health Organization’s estimate that helmets reduce the risk of death by 42 per cent and serious head injury by 69 per cent.

No country can ignore data from the authorities that the majority of motorcycle crash victims are young men aged 20 to 29. That, though, is Jamaica’s reality. Death and injury apart, the situation is made worse by the social, emotional, medical, and economic costs. Quantifiable costs amount to millions of dollars per person.

Recently Ms Sydoney Preddie, project manager, road safety and road user education at JN Foundation, issued an appeal for us to “engender a culture of safety”, particularly among our young people.

“That means not only wearing helmets, but choosing certified ones, understanding the risks, and being part of a larger community that values life over speed,” Ms Preddie said.

We couldn’t agree more.