Minister Shaw Urges Motorists To Look Out For Children

Minister of Transport and Mining, Hon. Audley Shaw, is appealing to drivers to look out for children on the roads, particularly as schools resume full face-to-face classes.

“I want to say to every person in this country who drives a vehicle – for God’s sake, our children and pedestrians can’t control the vehicle. I’m urging all drivers on the road [to] look out for our pedestrians and be responsible,” he urged.

Minister Shaw was speaking at the official launch of the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) ‘Safe Passage: Safe Routes to School Road Safety Clubs’, at the AC Hotel by Marriott in New Kingston on Wednesday (March 9).

He noted that since the start of the year “four children have died on the nation’s roads”.

“When we lose these young lives, it is not the families alone that suffer. We suffer as a nation. The pain and grief are a powerful driving force to help to prevent similar devastation and grief to other families,” he said.

He noted that statistics from the Road Safety Unit indicate that the main causes of accidents were excessive speeding, drivers failing to keep to the correct side of the road, overtaking inappropriately, and pedestrians not using the roads responsibly.

“This may only be stopped through behaviour change and discipline. We have a duty to our children to preserve them on the roads, at school [and] in our homes. This is especially as we adjust to the return of full face-to-face classes,” he contended.

Minister Shaw said that road safety requires the effort of every Jamaican and should include extensive road-safety education in schools.

“I, therefore, take the opportunity to urge all motorists, motorcyclists, pedal cyclists and pedestrians to be… a road model,” he said.

Head of the Public Safety and Traffic Enforcement Branch (PSTEB), Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Gary McKenzie, pointed to the need to promote behaviour change among parents.

“We find that parents, guardians, when they are actually taking the children to school, the practices, most times, are not good and that is something we need to change. Once we get parents and teachers on board, we perceive that we will have [the] kind of change that will allow our children to be safe,” he said.

The ‘Safe Passage: Safe Routes to School Road Safety Clubs’ seeks to promote safe road use by encouraging advocacy and behaviour change among students and the wider community.

The aim is to provide a safe environment for students as they traverse specific roadways and thoroughfares in the vicinity of selected school campuses.

Seven primary schools will benefit from various road-safety interventions under the initiative. They are Treadlight Primary in Clarendon; Hope Valley Experimental Primary and Infant and August Town Primary in Kingston and St. Andrew; Bickersteth Primary and Infant, Roehampton Primary, and Salt Spring Primary in St. James; and Greenwich All-Age in St. Catherine.

Statistics from the Road Safety Unit indicate that 25 children, aged zero to 17 years, were among the 487 Jamaicans who died as a result of road crashes last year.