MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Vice-chairman of the National Road Safety Council Dr Lucien Jones has underscored the need for people to pay attention when using the nation’s roads after a young boy was struck from his bicycle in Prospect, Manchester, on Tuesday leaving his relatives devastated.

“The road is a very dangerous place and so far 234 have died. We don’t want this kind of carnage to continue on our roads, and most of them are preventable. Certainly in this instance the child should never have died,” Dr Jones told the Jamaica Observer on Wednesday.

He was responding to a crash which claimed the life of Malique Barnes. Police reported Malique’s age as 12, but family members say he was 11 years old and attended Bull Savannah Primary School.

According to the police report, about 3:20 pm on Tuesday Malique was riding a bicycle from the right side of the road to the left when he crossed the path of a Toyota Hiace and was struck from the bicycle.

He was taken to hospital by the driver of the Hiace where he was pronounced dead.

The driver, who was questioned by the police up to late Tuesday, was released after CCTV footage appeared to show that Malique rode the bicycle from behind a parked truck into the path of the Hiace.

Dr Jones expressed concern after watching the footage on Wednesday morning.

“It would appear as if — based on the video which I saw — that we need to reinforce the message to all road users, young and old, riding bicycles or riding motorcycles or pedestrians walking on the road, that when you are going to cross the road you have to be very careful,” said Dr Jones.

“You have to look left, you have to look right, you have to look left again a second time before you cross the road. It would appear, based on the video, that this kind of message was not firmly implanted in the mind of this young man,” added Dr Jones.

He said while there may have been other factors, it appears as if the child was crossing the road, “a bit recklessly”.

“We are not sure why he was riding without any kind of supervision at that age. Riding on a busy road, and why he chose to cross the road in this manner,” said Dr Jones.

“Of course, the other issue is whether or not the driver who hit him was speeding. We can’t say, based on the video. The police will have to determine that,” he added.

Dr Jones is urging motorists to slow down in order to increase the chances of survival in the event of a crash.

“The faster you drive, the [more] likely you will hit a pedestrian or motorcyclist or someone riding a bicycle. It is more likely that that person will die. We know the data very clearly, if you hit [someone] above 30 kilometres per hour (km/h) then the chances of survival for that person is very minimal,” he said.

“We need to drive in built-up areas at 30 km/h [or] less in order to stabilise. This is a terrible message and reality on our Independence [Day] when we should be celebrating life, we are mourning death. We don’t have to if we do the right thing,” added Dr Jones.

Statistics from the police show that 234 fatalities have been recorded on the nation’s roads up to 6:00 am on Wednesday compared to 233 for the corresponding period last year.

JONES…we don’t want this kind of carnage to continue on our roads, and most of them are preventable