Police at the scene of a collision between a Toyota Probox car and a Mitsubishi Fuso truck at the junction of Drewsbury Street and Liguanea Street in St Andrew, according to a Jamaica Observer file photo.
If Darryl Vaz gets his way, some of the millions of dollars raised from traffic tickets could be used to fund a massive public education campaign aimed at curbing carnage on the nation’s roads.
Minister of Science, Energy, Communications and Transport Vaz called the rising number of road accidents and fatalities a national emergency, saying last week that the situation was only getting worse and required urgent action through a well-structured public education campaign.
“We cannot continue on this path given the lives lost and the impact on families, infrastructure, hospital services and more. This is a national emergency,” Vaz told a news conference at his office on Trafalgar Road, St Andrew, last week.
Mr Vaz stressed that while the number of deaths recorded so far this year, 192, is 13% lower than the 205 recorded during the same period last year, it was “still completely unacceptable”.
He lamented that according to his research, the Ministry of Transport has not allocated any budget for public education and other activities on road safety.
Vaz noted that revenue from traffic fines is typically shared between the Ministry of National Security (42 percent of the funding) and the Ministry of Justice (18 percent), with the remainder going to the Consolidated Fund via the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Public Service.
“I made a simple recommendation that 100 per cent of the budget should be allocated to the Ministry of Transport. That has been accepted and the permanent secretary is awaiting the draft cabinet submission to see what the allocation recommendations were exactly,” Vaz said.
Vaz noted that more than $600 million in traffic ticket fines were collected between Jan. 1 and June 2 of this year, and said up to 25 percent of the funding would allow for a more coordinated response to what’s happening on the roads.
He said the funds did not have to be used only for public education but could also include the provision of motorcycle helmets, referring to Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ plans to distribute 10,000 helmets to motorbike riders. He said some of the fatal accidents in recent weeks could have been prevented if the 10,000 had been procured and used.
Vaz said the plan was to run a long-term campaign, “not just have one department raise $5 million, another department raise $10 million, run it for three months and then be done.”
“This has to be sustained, and we’re talking about a plan for what message to get in people’s minds, that the first thing they remember before they get in their car and hit the road is what they saw vividly on the screens on the highway, what they saw in commercials on TV, that makes them think, ‘Maybe I should take it easy today,'” he said.
Vaz said that to ensure the sustainability of the intervention, the government may need international support from organisations that deliver interventions every day and with success.
“We are hopeful that the reallocation will allow us to act quickly, but we cannot wait for that. We must work with the police to find solutions to stop fatalities on our roads and find other ways and means by which we can start the process,” he said.
