Athaliah Reynolds, Staff Reporter

THERE HAS been a decline in the number of people killed in accidents on the island's roadways this year, compared to the same period last year.

According to statistics provided by the National Road Safety Council of Jamaica, since January to September 2007 there were 13 fewer fatal accidents than for the same period in 2006.

Kenute Hare, accident analyst and statistician at the Road Safety Unit said up to September 18, there had been 208 fatal accidents with 242 deaths, compared to last year's 220 fatal accidents with 255 deaths.

"The third quarter of 2007 is the best third quarter in terms of accident fatalities since 2001," said Hare. "This quarter has recorded 57 fatalities, which is a significant decrease when compared with 2006," he added.

He also said it must be further noted that fatalities for 2007 were expected to decrease by eight per cent when compared with 2006.

"It is crucial to recognise that the necessary interventions be continued as they are reaping the rewards so far. Looking at the present data, fatalities should further decrease by two per cent in 2008 over 2007," said Hare.

Maintain the reduction

He said the traffic police were aiming to maintain the reduction in the number of fatalities this year, and especially during the busy holiday season in December.

There was also a reduction in the number of pedestrians killed on the roads for the same period. Up to September of this year, there were 66 pedestrians fatally injured; for the same period last year, there were 81 deaths. The breakdown was also similar for the number of children killed on the roadways, with four fewer fatal accidents involving children for this year as compared to last year.

It was noted, however, that the number of passengers killed in motor vehicle accidents up to September this year has increased, in comparison to last year.

"It has been quite a while that we have seen more passengers killed in motor vehicle accidents than pedestrians," said Hare. "This is the first time since as far back as 2004 that we have had a situation such as this. Normally, the pedestrians are the highest number of road users who would be killed," he said.

Hare said that there may be more than one reason for this occurrence, but attributes it to a decline in the number of passengers who are adhering to the seat-belt law.

"Quite a number of the passengers in these accidents were not wearing their seat belts and some of them were thrown from the motor vehicles," he said.

According to Deputy Superintendent Byron Powell, the insistence by passengers to not wear their seat belts may be a serious contributor to the increase in the numbers of passengers being killed in road accidents.

"We started a new drive just yesterday [Wednesday]. We went out at 7 a.m. and at about 2 p.m. When that shift concluded, we had issued about 88 tickets for not wearing seat belts and about 23 for not wearing helmets," he said. "This was just in operation in the Corporate Area," added Supt. Powell.