More strategic placement of road signs necessary

With the increasing carnage on the road these days, the National Road Safety Council should take a serious look at the placement of those caution signs that alert drivers to risky or unsafe conditions ahead. The new highways are well served by directional signs and a fair number of warning indicators, but these are missing in action once you leave the main and take the roads through the hinterland.

The modern signs are also less conspicuous than the bolder and more noticeable signs mounted by the Public Works Department in earlier times. Those first-generation signs were accompanied by prominent, brightly painted emblems warning us of sharp corners, steep hills, double corners, silent zones, dangerous curves, and other hazards awaiting the motorist.

Signs like these are sorely needed on roads well travelled, highway or no. For example, between Kent Village and Flat Bridge, there is a long, unending corner that deceptively promises an early finish until you begin to wonder if you'll ever come out of it. If you are not accustomed to this stretch, you tend to maintain speed until you find yourself hanging on precariously to keep from slipping into Rio Cobre.

Narrow bridge

Another road well trod is the one between Steer Town and Golden Grove, with a number of dange-rous curves that pull you up sharply and unexpec-tedly, and often just before meeting a trailer on a narrow bridge. Whenever I travel through that corridor, I remember this concise newspaper report turned in by a journalist. Two vehicles collided. One had the right of way. The other had a truck.

The straighter highways have reduced the need for some of these signs. Get off the main road, however, and you would wish that you had been warned when climbing Mount Rosser, or Devil's Race Course, or the famous Castleton road from Stony Hill to Annotto Bay.

The winding Melrose and Spur Tree Hill paths were replaced by straighter roads built by Alcan and Alpart in the 1990s, providing relief as far as the corners go, although Spur Tree still maintains its notorious Spur Tree Corner hairpin bend. Spur Tree is a classic case, going downhill, where drivers need to be warned to change gears. Of interest, the hill is named after the many tall, spiked fiddlewood trees that used to dominate the area.

One of our best-kept driving secrets must be the road from Malvern to Mountainside on the southern side of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

The road was marvellously and miraculously constructed on a ridge that it hugs as it winds around several of the sharpest corners in Jamaica. What makes it difficult to keep your eye on the road is the beautiful scenery that unfolds around every bend. The road is a treasure, but the sign should read: 'Walk, don't run.'

Intriguing names

The names of some of the more well-known corners are intriguing. You don't have to ask how Soursop corner on the May Pen to Chapelton road got its name. But what about Labour-in-Vain Savannah in St Elizabeth (drought conditions?), Save Rent in Westmoreland (I would like to live there), Put Together and Shoe-me-Foot Corners (in several parishes), Hole Hog Hole in Manchester, or Mount Moses in Clarendon.

The Cockpits have their own unique and mysterious character, and they don't hide their words or their meaning. In plain language, one corner on the Troy to Balaclava road in the heart of Me-No-Call-Yu-Nuh-Come country in St Elizabeth is referred to by the locals as Slip-yu-Shoot, or words to that effect.

Pain-A-To'-much Hill, above Lucea, was discovered by the Push Cart Derby pioneers in 1976 while searching for a track to stage the Hanover parish derby.

I wish for all of us a safer drive on our roads this year. If you miss the safety signs, keep these lines in mind as you go motoring.

"Here lies the body of old John Grey

Who thought he had the right of way

He was right, dead right, as he went along

But he is just as dead as if he were wrong."

Lance Neita is a public relations and communications consultant. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com or lanceneita@hotmail.com.