Jamaica so far records 29 days with triple road deaths, analysis reveals

Jamaica recorded three road deaths in a single day 29 times this year up to September 6, an analysis of police data has revealed.

The figures are for separate fatal crashes and not single events with multiple victims, explained Dr Parris Lyew-Ayee, who conducted the analysis.

There were 12 days when the police recorded four road deaths in a single day, and five days when five fatalities were reported, according to the analysis done by the National Road Safety Council (NRSC).

There were 107 days this year, up to September 6, when the police recorded no road deaths.

The number of days when three road deaths were recorded increased by one when compared with the corresponding period last year, while the number of days with four deaths increased by two.

The number of days when five road deaths were recorded remained the same as last year.

Lyew-Ayee, a consultant analyst with the NRSC, cautioned that the increasing number of days with multiple road deaths “speaks to an increasing intensity” that will put pressure on the police, hospitals, and other responders.

“So the implication is that enforcement will need to be spread out at the same time… you cannot have everything focused in Westmoreland,” he told The Gleaner, citing the parish with the fourth-highest number of road deaths so far this year.

Up to yesterday, a total of 284 people had died on Jamaica’s roadways, a five per cent increase year-on-year, according to the latest data published by the Island Traffic Authority.

At the end of the first quarter of this year, road fatalities were down 18 per cent.

Dr Lucien Jones, vice-chairman of the NRSC, said the analysis done by Lyew-Ayee is “a call to action” and “a call for a new policy prescription.”

He suggested that the “only way” to effectively monitor Jamaica’s road network is to augment the efforts of the police with the use of static cameras and/or drones.

“Otherwise, in the absence of any additions to the sanctions regime or any improvement which can effectively change the culture of extreme recklessness and speeding, we are going to experience the nightmare of multiple fatalities, which cause so much grief and pain,” Jones said.

- Livern Barrett

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