Nine Per Cent Decline in Motor Vehicle Accident Deaths

Superintendent in charge of traffic, Fred Hibbert, has revealed that the combined operations across the island by the Police Traffic Division (PTD) and the Transport Authority has resulted in a nine per cent decline in deaths related to motor vehicle accidents when compared to the corresponding period last year.
“Up to today (Nov. 27) there are 285 deaths on our roads and last year this time we had 313. In terms of collision we have 255 while last year it was 268. This is as a result of the combined operation across the island and it is having its effect,” he disclosed in a JIS News interview.
While the decline in deaths related to motor vehicle accidents is commendable the PTD will be increasing its efforts to achieve a further decline and more importantly not surpass the 300 mark that they have established.
“This year, although it is going to be difficult our target is to keep deaths related to motor vehicle accidents below the 300 mark. And we are going to be stepping up our presence in all areas to ensure that we keep it down,” the Superintendent asserted.
According to Superintendent Hibbert the road traffic accidents are caused mainly by young men with high speed vehicles and motorcyclist.
“The group of persons who really cause problem on our roads are men between the ages of 20 to 30. Often time some of these men are robot drivers and sometimes they are young men between the ages of 20 to 28 years old, who believe they have ‘reached’ and they buy these high speed vehicles that are not made for the Jamaican roads,” he informs.
Continuing he pointed out that “some of these men think that they can go to a party down in Negril and drink and drive back to Montego Bay or even Kingston the same night. Those are who are causing the accidents whether they are in it or it’s because they drive so badly and cause others to collide”.
Superintendent Hibbert further revealed that motorcyclists account for nearly 64 per cent of deaths on the road.
“Motorcyclists travel without any regard for themselves and others. They do not wear helmets and some times they are on the right side of the road and sometimes they go around, in and out of the road. Due to their reckless use of the road they create accidents. To date motorcyclists account for 64 per cent of accidents, there were 22 motorcyclists killed last year and 36 this year,” he outlined.
To address this situation, one of the things that the police will be doing this Christmas season is to increase its presence in accident-prone areas.
“There are some spots in Jamaica that are always having accidents and in order to curve or put a dent on these accidents we are beefing up our efforts in accident-prone areas,” the Superintendent remarked.
“Some of the roads in the Corporate Area are (Cross Roads and Half Way Tree Road, Balmoral Avenue, Molynes road, East Wood Park Road, Hope Road, Trafalgar road, Dunrobin Avenue and Constant Spring road in addition to roads in new Kingston)”, he further informs adding that “in the rural areas, (Clarendon, St. Ann, St. James, Manchester and St. Catherine main roads) are some of the roads that account for a high percentage of accidents every year”.
The Police Traffic Division is working in collaboration with the Transport Authority to reduce road accidents across the island. They will be targeting reckless drivers, especially robot taxis, and public transportation vehicles such as tinted public buses with loud music.