Jones urges pedestrians to exercise caution when crossing Mandela Highway amid death of 11-y-o
Published:Tuesday | June 10, 2025 | 1:34 PM
Dr Lucien Jones, vice chairman of the National Road Safety Council (NRSC), is appealing to pedestrians to use the designated area when crossing the busy Mandela Highway to reduce the risk of injury or even death.
His call follows the death of an 11-year-old student who was mowed down by a motor vehicle on the highway yesterday.
He has been identified as Duran McKenzie.
According to reports, the child got off a bus and was heading home from school when he was hit by a minivan.
The driver did not stop at the scene, but was later apprehended by the police in another area.
“All pedestrians on the Mandela Highway have to be extremely careful and use only the overhead bridge to cross the road. To try and cross that road 10 yards away is courting disaster and death and injury,” said Jones.
Jones noted that of the 171 people who have been killed in road accidents this year, 38 were pedestrians.
“It’s an alarming bit of data because the vulnerable road users are the ones who are dying mostly on our roads. The death of a child on the Mandela Highway yesterday brings into very sharp focus the importance of protecting our pedestrians from mayhem and chaos on the roads,” he said.
He described the Mandela Highway as a “very dangerous place”, with a speed limit of 80 kilometres per hour, however, he said motorists generally exceed this limit.
He stated that once motorists are driving over 30 kilometres per hour, the likelihood of a pedestrian surviving a collision drops dramatically.
Jones reiterated calls for motorists to reduce their speed, especially when driving in built-up areas.
“The World Health Organization has mandated all countries to ensure that, especially in built-up areas, the speed limit does not exceed 30 km per hour…so the slowdown or control of speeding is the number one factor,” he said.
He also emphasised the importance of providing adequate pedestrian facilities, while urging pedestrians to take responsibility for their safety.
“The pedestrian crossings, the sidewalks, the markings, the supervision of children around schools…encouraging children to look right, look left, and look right again,” he said.
He added: “Of course, we have to make sure that just as in the case of driving, pedestrians are not drinking alcohol and trying the roads, not using marijuana and trying to cross the road, not getting distracted with use of cell phones and trying to cross the roads.”
- Sashana Small
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