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National Road Safety Council Urges Continued Focus on Protecting Children

By: , May 24, 2019

The Key Point:

The National Road Safety Council (NRSC) is urging a continuation of the collective efforts to safeguard the nation’s children, which were evident during Labour Day activities on May 23.

The Facts

  • This year’s engagements, which were organised under the theme ‘Child Safety…It’s You, It’s Me, It’s All ah We’, were geared towards ensuring children’s safety as they travel to and from school, among other places.
  • The scope of work included the installation of pedestrian crossings, rumble strips, signage, bus lay-bys and sidewalls and paving of sidewalks, along with bushing and painting of school environs.

The Full Story

The National Road Safety Council (NRSC) is urging a continuation of the collective efforts to safeguard the nation’s children, which were evident during Labour Day activities on May 23.

This year’s engagements, which were organised under the theme ‘Child Safety…It’s You, It’s Me, It’s All ah We’, were geared towards ensuring children’s safety as they travel to and from school, among other places.

The scope of work included the installation of pedestrian crossings, rumble strips, signage, bus lay-bys and sidewalls and paving of sidewalks, along with bushing and painting of school environs.

In an interview with JIS News at the Papine High School in St Andrew, one of four national Labour Day projects, NRSC Vice Chairman, Dr. Lucien Jones, said everyone in Jamaica should prioritise road safety.

“Last year, for the very first time, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that road traffic injuries were the leading cause of deaths in the age cohort, five to 29 years. It means that the international agencies of the United Nations are all focused on making sure that we drive down road traffic injuries in all the countries, whether developing or developed countries,” he said.

Dr. Jones said the NRSC has, so far, recorded 171 road deaths, of which 11 are children.

“So I believe that this [focus on children’s safeguards] has come at an opportune time, whereby the Government, through its various agencies, is mobilising the whole country to begin to take road safety much more [seriously],” he said.

Dr. Jones said the NRSC welcomed the opportunity to participate in Thursday’s activities and expressed the hope that the focus will not only be on Labour Day, “but for the rest of the year, because the way the trend is going now… we are going to go over 400 for this year, and we can’t allow that”.

He assured that the Council will continue to collaborate with all agencies to ensure that “we make a dent in the number of children and adults who are dying on our roads”.

Last Updated: May 24, 2019

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