TRANSPORT Minister Daryl Vaz says the current increase in road fatalities has reached a “crisis stage”, an issue to which his ministry will be giving special focus next year.

“It has to be a priority because the numbers are climbing and they have now reached a crisis stage,” Vaz told a meeting of the Jamaica Observer Press Club last Thursday.

According to data from the Island Traffic Authority (ITA), 354 Jamaicans have been killed in 310 fatal crashes up to Thursday, December 11. This represents a two per cent increase in fatalities compared with the same period last year, while fatal crashes have risen by four per cent when compared with the corresponding period in 2024.

“That is something that is going to have to take centre stage as soon as we level off with [Hurricane] Melissa, because what is transpiring now on the roads has actually taken over from the murder rate. The murder rate used to be the biggest thing; the murder rate now is trending down and, unfortunately, road fatalities are going up,” Vaz added.

The minister explained that the majority of road crashes are caused by defective vehicles, indiscipline, and dangerous driving.

Additionally, he said there are individuals obtaining driver’s licences for all categories, without any qualifications or competency to drive on the roads.

“So we have to start from ground zero. It’s not going to happen overnight, but we have to start from ground zero to get to where you want. The system that we have here has been going for decades. It reaches a stage now, when you see the accidents and the reasons for the accidents, it jumps out at you that 90 per cent of these accidents are preventable,” Vaz said.

While noting that a public education campaign is already underway to address the issue, the minister said it must be executed in a manner that ensures every driver understands the risks associated with dangerous driving.

“The public education campaign has to be done in a way where everybody that is behind a steering wheel can see what the possibilities are vividly, by seeing the results of dangerous driving etcetera. To talk about it and put a jingle together, those days done. If you don’t see what can happen to you it’s not going to jerk you into action, into ‘Don’t drive because you are drunk,’ or, ‘Slow down,’ or whatever it is — that to me [is] probably one of the biggest challenges of my ministry going into 2026,” Vaz explained.

He further pointed to the need for the retraining and screening of public passenger vehicle operators.

“We have to come up with something on two scales…to screen the public passenger transport operators. The retraining that we spoke about has taken place and we screen in terms of their competency. I just saw an article yesterday [last Wednesday] where in Guyana they say 50 per cent of the persons who have driver’s licences over there are not qualified to drive, and I would say to you that I would not be surprised if our number is not in that region or more,” he said.

In 2024, Jamaica recorded 365 road fatalities resulting from 315 collisions.