Excerpt from The Jamaica Observer column published on Monday, July 4, 2022
By Jean Lowrie-Chin
Just like shooting deaths, we are becoming dangerously inured to fatal road crashes. We are now barely affected by the sight of motor vehicles crumpled beyond recognition and firefighters working to free the hapless victims.
Up to last Friday, over 230 lives were lost on our roads, an increase over the same period last year. The level of indiscipline on our roads makes us wary of moving off when we get the green as chances are there are several coming at us on the red. We see second and third lanes being formed, mostly by taxi drivers, pushing oncoming traffic on to the sidewalk. There is still no safe time for pedestrians to cross the busy intersection of Hope, Trafalgar, and Waterloo roads, even though several schools are in the surrounding areas.
Dr Lucien Jones, convenor of the National Road Safety Council, has noted, “Our big problem is that over 80 per cent of bikers are not wearing helmets. Many road users also are not buckled up, are driving under the influence of alcohol and speeding. A deadly cocktail of eminently preventable causes of crashes and death.” Until the updated Road Traffic Act is implemented and people start feeling their carelessness in their pockets, the fatalities will keep climbing.
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