MANDEVILLE, Manchester — With the US$188-million May Pen to Williamsfield leg of Highway 2000 expected to be completed by March 2023, firefighters are fearful that excessive speeding will lead to carnage on the new section of the toll road.

Deputy Superintendent at the Jamaica Fire Brigade Rohan Powell said firefighters are bracing for a “nightmare”.

“We are having a large number of motor vehicle accidents, and what we are fearing more than anything else — you see the opening of that highway there, it is going to make our work a nightmare,” he told a town hall meeting hosted by the Manchester Chamber of Commerce at Manchester Golf Club last Thursday.

He said the brigade is already burdened by the number of crashes on main roads.

“We already have Spur Tree Hill, Winston Jones [Highway] and the [Melrose] bypass. Now when we open that leg right into Williamsfield on the highway; I am not from Manchester, I am from the north coast, and so I can speak to when highways are open, it becomes an autobahn. Everybody speeds and it becomes an area for carnage. This is where the fire department gets its headache from,” he said.

However, Errol Mortley, environmental manager at National Road Operating and Constructing Company — which is responsible for overseeing the design, construction and maintenance of Jamaica’s highways — countered that, “The toll roads are the safest roads in Jamaica.”

He added that Edward Seaga Highway, which links the north and south coasts, had only one fatality for 2021.

“Most of the crashes are single-vehicle crashes, unlike the other regular main roads where you have multiple vehicle crashes or head-on crashes. We have very few head-on crashes on the toll roads,” he told the Jamaica Observer on Tuesday.

Head of the police’s Public Safety and Traffic Enforcement Branch, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Gary McKenzie, said motorists ought to adhere to the Road Traffic Act in using highways.

“Highways in Jamaica are classified into two types. You have the toll highway and the regular highways,” he said.

“Generally speaking, the regular highways have a speed limit of 80 kilometres per hour (km/h). The toll highway varies in terms of speed, because you have a highway speed of up to 110 km/h with an allowance of up to 126 km/h by virtue of the road traffic law,” he told the Observer.

Motorists have been eagerly awaiting the completion of the May Pen to Williamsfield leg of Highway 2000, which will incorporate the Melrose Bypass in Manchester.

The crucial Melrose Bypass links Mandeville and its environs to points east. There have been a number of fatal crashes on the bypass over the years.

On the western end of Mandeville the crash-prone Spur Tree main road, which links the town and its environs to St Elizabeth and points west, has also had fatal crashes.

Heavily laden, slow-moving trucks often hinder traffic on the steep, difficult hill. Successive administrations have pledged to build a bypass road for Spur Tree Hill.

Statistics from the National Road Safety Council showed that up to Tuesday morning there had been 128 road fatalities from 112 collisions islandwide since the start of this year, 11 more deaths when compared to the corresponding period last year.

Powell said motorists should abide by the rules of the road as oftentimes when the brigade responds to crashes they are fatal.

“To leave out of that [Mandeville] fire station to battle the traffic all the way out to the traffic light, anybody that we are going out there to assist it is just to remove them if the vehicle is entangled around them and to wait for people from the morgue to come and pick them up,” he said.

“This is not something that we are proud of. We want to get there in time to make a difference. Our motto is, ‘We save lives and protect properties’, but we can’t do it unless we have people who recognise that the road is to be used in a particular way. That there are laws that tell us how we operate on the roadway,” he added.

He said the indiscipline of motorists using Winston Jones Highway is also a cause for concern.

“When you are going down that hill, those two lanes become four. Everybody has to be racing on it,” he said.

ACP McKenzie said overtaking is a major issue on toll roads as some motorists fail to adhere to the rules.

“They are required to keep to the left and to [pass] to the right. That, of course, is a major problem because, with a high-speed highway, what you find is that if people use the right lane when they are not overtaking then you have vehicles going to the left and right and that poses some difficulty and in some instances we have had crashes as a result,” he said.

He added that motorists should drive in accordance with the condition of the road surface.

“Whenever we have adverse weather conditions, such as rain, and in particular [on] the North-South Highway, where in early morning there is some amount of fog, it is necessary for people to adhere to those conditions and to slow down and drive according to what the condition is at that time,” he said.

He added that there have been crashes resulting from vehicles sliding off wet roads.

“Bearing in mind that when the road is wet vehicles can slide, and in some instances there are various areas along the highways where the water flows off, vehicles could hydroplane. They slip off the road and overturn,” he said.

Mortley said challenges arise primarily when motorists exceed the speed limit.

“[Toll roads are] so designed that the geometry and the speed are related. When you exceed the speed limit that is when you have challenges with [controlling] the vehicle,” he said.

He added that toll roads have motorway patrol officers who make the rounds 24 hours a day to ensure that the travelling public is safe. “So if there is a crash there is a response within 10 to 20 minutes from any point.”

He said the toll roads are built to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials standards.

“Toll roads are built at the highest level in terms of standard of construction in terms of the road width, road markings, and signs, vertical and horizontal curves. You can drive on a toll road at the speed limit that it is designed for without issue,” he said.