Excerpt from the Jamaica Observer Column published Monday, May 17, 2021
By Jean Lowrie-Chin
Today (Monday, May 17, 2021) marks the beginning of the sixth UN Global Road Safety Week, which carries as its theme ‘Streets for Life’, calling for reduced speed in school zones and built-up areas. Taxi drivers, led by Egeton Newman, president of the umbrella group Transport Operators Development Sustainable Services (TODSS), will participate in a call for safe streets tomorrow at the Hope, Waterloo and Trafalgar roads intersection in St Andrew.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness, chairman of the National Road Safety Council (NRSC), will lead a distinguished panel for a road safety webinar on Thursday, including children’s activist Zoleka Mandela; JN Group Vice-Chair and CEO Earl Jarrett; moderator NRSC Vice-Chairman Dr Lucien Jones; Dr Parris Lyew-Ayee Jr, head of Mona GeoInformatics; Dr Etienne Krug, director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Department for Management of Noncommunicable Diseases, Disability, Violence and Injury Prevention; and Saul Billingsley, executive director, Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) Foundation.
Up to May 11, we have had 168 fatalities, exceeding last year’s figures over the same 2020 period. The category with the most fatalities continues to be motorcyclists (56), followed by pedestrians (35). Sadly, there have been 10 child fatalities. Cutting speed is crucial if we are to reduce last year’s number of precious Jamaican lives lost (433).
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