NRSC urges gov't to accelerate road repair programmes

By Clinton McGregor    

 

Amid growing frustration about the poor state of the country's roads, Vice Chairman of the National Road Safety Council Dr. Lucien Jones is urging the administration to speed up its multi-billion dollar road rehabilitation programmes.

 

Motorists across the island have been protesting against the poor road conditions since the passage of Hurricane Beryl, arguing that their vehicles are being damaged.

 

Several crashes have been attributed to attempts by motorists to avoid potholes.

 

Speaking with Radio Jamaica News, Dr. Jones agreed that the badly damaged roads pose a danger to vehicular and pedestrian traffic across the island. 

 

The road repairs cannot come soon enough, he argued, pointing to the impending Christmas season when road crashes, injuries and fatalities usually increase. 

 

"To the extent that we can fix the roads and make it more easier for pedestrians to traverse and for vehicles to traverse, make it easier for pedestrians to cross the roads, make it less likely that cars are going to swing from potholes, increase the road markings so people can see where they are going, increase the number of signs on roads so that people can be warned about danger ahead - if we can put all those things together in a package, then we can make some progress in respect of this matter of road safety, which is a major problem for the country in respect of it being the second leading cause of violent death in the nation," he asserted.   

 

In a statement Thursday, the NRSC said it is looking forward to the visit of the International Road Assessment Program to assess Jamaica's road network in the coming weeks.

 

The IRAP will assign a rating of 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest, 3 the basic minimum recommended by World Health Organisation, and 5 the highest.

 

The organisation will then provide the government with a budget to achieve improvements to the 3 star level.

 

The NRSC says worldwide, the experience is that fixing unsafe roads translates into saving lives and preventing injuries. 

 

The country has so far recorded 279 road fatalities compared with 316 for the similar period last year - a 12 per cent reduction.

 

Fifty-four pedestrians, 17 pedal cyclists, 90 motorcyclists are among those killed in crashes.

 

Data from the Ministry of Health revealed that more than 8,000 people have been injured in road crashes since 2022.

 

The National Road Safety Council says it wants more crash data from the Road Safety Unit and regular injury data from the Ministry of Health.