Save 300 in sight

Push to lower road fatalities target

Sheldon Williams, Sunday Gleaner Writer

With just under two months remaining in 2012, executive director of the National Road Safety Council (NRSC), Paula Fletcher, is confident that the council's target of under 300 traffic deaths for a calendar year will finally be met. Fletcher said, "At November 1, we are at 205, compared with 250 at the same time last year. That is 45 less deaths, an 18 per cent decrease, which is very significant."

"For the month of October we had 15 fatalities, compared with 23 the previous year. For the month of September, there were 16, and for the month of August, 22," Fletcher outlined. Making projections, she applied high road-fatality figures to the rest of the year to show that the target should still be met.

"If we take some of the highest figures for November and December, which is 30 each month, that is 60, and we are at 205, that would bring us to 265. It would have to take something catastrophic for us to exceed 300. We are actually talking now about containing the gain for this year and what we can do going forward into this year. That's the type of discussion we're having now. We're still trying to have all the strategies in place for November and December, so we're not celebrating because we wouldn't want even one more to die. But as miraculous as that would be, it may not happen. There may be deaths, but there's no way that we can exceed," Fletcher said confidently.

Fletcher explained that a reasonable projection, with all factors taken into consideration, is between 270 and 275 road deaths for 2012, as a spike in fatalities is expected from November to January. "We usually have a spike in November, December, January, for obvious reasons. More persons on the road, more merriment and alcohol comes into the mix," Fletcher said.

When asked about concerns that the current target of under 300 road fatalities is still too high, Fletcher argued that it is better appreciated when put in perspective. In a visit to Jamaica earlier this year, president of the Federation Internationale de Automobile (FIA), Jean Todt, had said that the Jamaican target was too high.

However, Fletcher argued, "In 1991, we had 441 deaths and (eventually) came down to 385, so the point is, we are coming down. Yes, it can be lower, but without the level of resources to lower it then it's just the will and the commitment of road safety practitioners that is keeping it in check". "She also explained that the partnership of various agencies, rather than investments, is responsible for propelling Jamaica's road safety initiative.

It has been four years since the Save 300 campaign was launched. In 2007, there were 350 road fatalities, there was a dip to 343 in 2008, in 2009 a slight increase to 347; and then a steady decline to 319 in 2010, and 308 in 2011.

With the anticipated achievement of the current target, Fletcher said the figure might gradually change if road fatalities continue to decrease. "The whole idea is to go below 250, then below 200, and keep going down," she argued.

However, chairman of the Jamaica Automobile Association (JAA) Dr Earl Jarrett, who recently criticised the NRSC's target figure as being too high, put his criticism into context and explained why he has a similar viewpoint to Todt's. He compared Jamaica to other countries, saying, "For instance, Jamaica is around 11 per 100,000, whereas Britain is around five per 100,000 and there are some countries in Europe, Denmark in particular, which is at two per 100,000.

"My views were simulated by comments of Todt ... who made the observation that while 300 is a great target and an important one to have been set, we need to look closely at aligning that target with the best of the best, and that would mean that we would need to cut, for the future years, our target by probably half to, say, 175 per year."

infrastructure

A more appropriate figure can only be determined through a team effort. "I've said what the rest of the world does. Maybe a reasonable target would be getting to seven per 100,000, which would probably put us at around 220, maybe 250, but it is not for me (to say). We work as a team to set measurable, achievable goals - smart targets. We don't want to set something that is impossible to achieve," Jarrett said.

Infrastructure is key to ensuring a sustained decline in road fatalities. "The first thing is to get the rule sorted by getting the new Road Traffic Act out quickly," Jarrett said, maintaining that the current Act has archaic clauses. "The other thing is the vehicles ... how we examine cars, whether we do it in one place or whether we distribute it against authorised garages, these are important things. The quality of the cars, to ensure that good cars are on the road, that they're properly tested ... . We need to ensure that this is done earnestly," Jarrett pointed out.

Additionally, he argued that the police should be given more resources.

"The police need to be mobile and they need to have good assets working within the mobile area and those assets need to be well deployed. So I would think that those three things would be important elements in ensuring that we have great road safety next year," he said.