By John Myers, Jr. Staff ReporterTHE NATIONAL Road Safety Council (NRSC) has identified road fatalities as the second leading cause of sudden deaths in Jamaica, behind homicides.
While the statistics indicate that the number of road fatalities for the period January to October this year was lower than the comparable period in 2002, vice-chairman/convenor of the NRSC, Dr. Lucien Jones, said the trend over several years shows that the numbers are increasing.
Dr. Jones said the fact that road deaths account for such a large percentage of sudden death cases, held serious implications for the country.
According to statistics obtained from the NRSC, the number of road fatalities from 1986 to 1998 have consistently come in above 350, with the year 1991 recording most deaths, totalling 444 or 44 per cent of sudden death cases, compared with 561 or 55.8 per cent for homicides.
For the years 1992 and 1993, road fatalities accounted for 40 per cent and 39 per cent of all deaths respectively while the homicide rate stood at 59 per cent and 60 per cent for each of those years.
FATALITIES ON THE RISE
However, that number dipped to a low of 295 in 1999, but shot up to 334 the following year, 361 in 2001, and 408 in 2002.
Meantime, the NRSC vice-chairman said the organisation was handicapped because of a lack of funds to carry out its work.
"We have been starved of funds from the private sector in recent times and therefore our public education campaign has been short-changed," said Dr. Jones. "We are not out there as much advising people because we don't have the money to do it."
He said that in 1999 when the NRSC's public sensitisation programme was at its peak, the country recorded the lowest number of road fatalities.
Based on research, the NRSC attributes the high fatality rate to a combination of factors including excessive speeding.
"We believe that people are not safety conscious as before and the data shows that motorists are not wearing their seatbelts as they should," Dr. Jones said.
