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United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety Jean Todt has recommended that all helmets imported into Jamaica are certified.

Todt, who is also the president of the Federation Internationale de L’Autombile (FIA), made the recommendation recently, while on a tour of the Hazard Primary School in Clarendon.

It is the first school to benefit from the “X Marks the Spot” Crosswalk Road Safety Campaign, which is being implemented by JN Foundation, in collaboration with funding organisations, UNICEF, the FIA Foundation, and the Abertis Foundation, based in Spain.

“I would encourage you to ensure that all the helmets which are sold in Jamaica are homologated,” he said.      

The FIA president was in Jamaica attending the Caribbean Road Safety Workshop, which was held at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) office in Kingston. The event was co-organised by the National Road Safety Council, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and Caribbean, the IDB and the Pan-American Health Organization/World Health Organisation.

Since the start of the year, 269 persons have lost their lives in 244 road crashes across the country. Of this number, motorcyclists accounted for the highest demographic, with 82 persons.

Todt pointed out that every year, citizens in countries such as Jamaica, are affected by disabilities resulting from road crashes, which he said, can be prevented through education and enforcement of the law.

The FIA president also commended the work being implemented by the JN Foundation and UNICEF at the Hazard Primary School, which benefited from the construction of signage for bus lay-bys, pedestrian gates and the widening and paving of sidewalks, under the X Marks the Spot Campaign.

Onyka Barrett Scott, general manager of the JN Foundation, said the campaign will continue with the upgrading of 17 other schools, during the next three years.

“More recently, in 2018 and continuing to 2021, through our partnership with UNICEF, we are in the process of identifying 18 schools, and Hazard Primary School was the first. We will make critical infrastructural changes in the schools zones, to ensure that children are safer on their way to school and back home,” she said.

Barrett Scott outlined that these improvements will range from constructing bus stops, erection of bus lay-bys, installation of speed taming mechanisms, painting pedestrian crossings or de-bushing, to name a few.

Mariko Kagoshima, UNICEF Representative in Jamaica, stated that her organisation was happy to be part of the “X Marks the Spot Campaign.” And, she pointed out that, globally, road traffic injuries are the leading cause of the death of children and young people, from five to 29 years.

“In Jamaica, an average of three children are killed each month, as a result of road traffic accidents, and that is three too many,” she pointed out, “And, many more children suffer devastating injuries from road crashes.”

Kagoshima said that a UNICEF Poll, conducted in 2018, revealed that 70 per cent of children do not feel safe on the road; and 40 per cent want penalties to be enforced for those who drive recklessly.

Sonia Thomas, vice principal of Hazard Primary School, expressed gratitude for the improvement, which she said has not only made the students safer but, has also instilled pride in them.

Thomas said more parents in the community now perceive the school as the first choice for their children as a result of the improvement to the school.

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Educator Heather Lyn drives past Hazard Primary School in Clarendon twice daily, a routine that has been the same for many years. But the other night she felt something different as her car drove over something.

“BOOM!”

“BOOM!”

This was no accident. She’d driven over the brand new rumble strips installed as part of the ‘X Marks the Spot’ road safety campaign. Over the next three years, the  initiative will make life-saving improvements to road infrastructure and crossings outside 18 schools across Jamaica.

The schools selected – of which Hazard Primary is the first – are some of the worst impacted by road traffic accidents that have killed more than 120 children on Jamaican roads over the past five years.

“Over the past two months I have seen the transformation that has taken place,” says Lyn. “Drivers who are using this road are very conscious that they need to slow down for our children to cross safely.”

Every child deserves a safe journey to school
X Marks the Spot is being implemented by the Jamaica National (JN) Foundation, with support from UNICEF, the FIA Foundation based in the UK and the Abertis Foundation based in Spain.

The recognition of road crashes as the leading cause of death globally for children over 10 years-old has led to the issue being placed as Target 3.6. of the Sustainable Development Goals – to halve the number of global deaths and injuries by road traffic crashes by 2020.

Hazard has had its share of challenges. “Brutal!” is how Richard Bell, who supervised the construction, describes the situation previously. “Now I feel 100% more comfortable. Before, there was never any control between the cars on the road and the kids crossing it.”

Living on the other side of the road, Bell himself has two children who have to cross daily to attend the school.

School community welcomes improvement
Speaking at the launch of the campaign, UNICEF education specialist Rebecca Tortello underscored why UNICEF became involved. “Getting to and from school should never cost a child his or her life or injury! We look forward to helping more school zones become safer for children and their parents and to increasing advocacy around this critical national and global issue.”

Further support is needed. Jamaica recently passed its revised Road Traffic Act but still has a few road safety conventions to sign.

The discipline of all road users remains a concern and the campaign will also work to encourage all persons – whether pedestrians or drivers – to take road safety more seriously. Speeding and riding without a motorcycle helmet, as well as transporting a child without proper child restraint, are among the most common traffic violations involving children.

“What we need to do is to teach the adults about safety in terms of their cars because sometimes police have to stop them about certain little issues. But those little things can create major accidents, so the most major thing is to teach the adults!” said Aaliyah Bell, a student of Jonathan Grant High School in St Catherine, the second school to be reached by X Marks The Spot.

The campaign is  informed by a recently completed Child Road Safety Assessment Report commissioned by the JN Foundation, with support from UNICEF. The report  provided baseline data that guided partners on where to focus the interventions and how best to improve the safety of children on roads as they journey to and from school.

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Disregard for simple road safety practices such as the use of seatbelts, helmets and child restraint systems, is causing Jamaican children to die, according to recent research findings on child road safety, commissioned by the JN Foundation and The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF).
“Speeding and riding without a motorcycle helmet, as well as transporting a child without proper child restraints are among the most frequent traffic violations involving children,” said Dr. Earl Bailey, senior lecturer at the University of Technology, and lead researcher on the JN Foundation/UNICEF Child Road Safety Assessment Report.
Dr. Bailey was speaking at the official launch of the research data, which was held at The University of the West Indies Regional Headquarters, Mona Campus, on Wednesday, July 18.
He said that in 2017, some 32,365 traffic tickets were issued for exceeding the speed limit. Tickets issued for driving without seat belts totalled some 113,677.
The UTECH researcher further divulged that transporting a child without a child restraint resulted in 3,604 tickets. Tickets to motorcyclists riding without protective helmets totalled approximately 2,728.
“Fines are not the answer, there must be behavioural and structural changes,” Dr. Bailey advised; as he pointed out that, “Over the last 40 years traffic fines have failed to curb road fatalities and crashes.”
Onyka Barrett Scott, acting general manager of the JN Foundation, speaking at the launch, agreed that there must be behavioural change.
“We are guardians of our children. Many of us drop them off at school, daily; and, some of us don’t have the luxury of dropping them off, we simply put them on a bus. Therefore, this is something real for many of us,” she stated.
“We do have a moral responsibility to ensure that our children are able to grow up; be educated in a safe and enabling environment; and, being safe on the road is part of that.”
Mrs Barrett Scott explained that, the research will be used to implement road safety strategies across the country, particularly in those parishes where the highest level of road crashes and fatalities occur.
“The research findings will be used as part of the X –Mark the Spot Road Safety Campaign, to inform teachers, students, parents and community members, at the schools we select, about use of safety interventions, such as: bus lay-bys, improved pedestrian crossings, and pedestrian’s gates,” she outlined.
Mrs Barrett Scott also emphasised that, “the research data will not simply gather dust on a shelf, as it will be actively used to influence change to save lives.”
Up to late December 2017, the total road fatalities stood at 313 persons, with children accounting for some six per cent of the total.