Drive for Life Workshops Successful – Clemetson

Director of the Road Safety Unit, Paul Clemetson, is reporting that the ‘Drive for Life’ workshops have been a success so far.
These islandwide workshops are part of the Unit’s initiative to change the behaviour of drivers and to instill the importance of proper road use.
Speaking with JIS News, Mr. Clemetson said that the feedback from the drivers who attended the workshops was encouraging. “Response, attendance.participation and involvement of those attendees have also been great,” he said.
According to the Director, some of the recurring concerns that were raised are the means by which persons acquire their licences, the literacy of many of the drivers, and drivers’ response and attitude to pedestrians. “They have raised a lot of questions [and] from the presentations, they are aware that a number of infringements by drivers do contribute to road crashes,” he said.
Mr. Clemetson is urging the public to, “come and be engaged in a very informative and exciting workshop on how one can improve their safe operation of vehicles and awareness of various measures to be employed for safe driving.”
Approximately 100 persons attended the Westmoreland workshop, while the Montego Bay workshop was attended by 65 persons. The next workshop will be on January 24 at the Eltham Community Centre in White River, St. Ann.
The Defensive Driving Campaign, dubbed ‘Drive for Life’, began last year and is a behaviour change campaign that seeks to reduce the risks associated with driving by improving the driver’s ability to anticipate dangerous situations, despite adverse conditions or the mistakes of others. The main tenets of the campaign are therefore, proper planning, effective observation, good anticipation and staying in control.