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JGRA launches Road Safety Awareness month

Published:Sunday | June 12, 2011 | 12:00 AM
From left: Trevor Heaven, president of the JGRA; Mike Henry, minister of transport and works; Laurence Broderick, minister of state in the ministry of energy and mining; and Ronald Waite, of the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises during the Jamaica Gasolene Retailers' Association launch of Road Safety Awareness Month at Petcom Gas Station, Portmore Parkway, last Wednesday. This year's programme retains last year's theme 'Save 300 Lives'.- Anthony Minott/Freelance Photographer

Anthony Minott, Gleaner Writer

Last Wednesday, with a mixture of bright sunshine and heavy rains, the Jamaica Gasolene Retailers' Association (JGRA) launched its Road Safety Awareness Month at the Petcom Portmore Parkway Gas Station under the theme 'Save 300 lives'.

Last year, a total of 317 persons died in fatal crashes.

This year, the JGRA is optimistic the road death toll can be less than 300.

As at Monday, June 6, there were 131 road deaths from 105 crashes - five more deaths than the comparative period last year. However, there are less fatal crashes this year, compared to last year at this time.

In 2010, there were 118 fatal crashes, but this year has seen a big upturn in multiple deaths from crashes, including four deaths in Christiana, Manchester, and three schoolgirls from Holmwood Technical who died when a Hiace bus in which they were travelling crashed.

'vaccines'

Meanwhile, Paula Fletcher, executive director of the National Road Safety Council, said that crashes are preventable and there are 'vaccines' to prevent death and injury on our roads. She noted that 37 per cent of the road deaths were pedestrians - by far the highest category of victims.

The 'vaccines' identified by Fletcher include wearing safety devices, not drinking and driving, observing the speed limit and traffic signs, ensuring that vehicles are roadworthy, practising safe pedes-trian habits and being legally qualified to drive on the road. She also thanked the JGRA for the road safety initiative, which is geared at sensitising the public.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Colin Pinnock, said the police were doing their part to make the nation's roads safer. He stressed that the police had acquired new radar guns to track speeding motorists and have so far issued over 196,000 traffic tickets and conducted over 3,000 breathalyser tests in the first six months of 2011.