Finally, a new Road Traffic Act
THE BIG news for 2018, is that finally, the Parliament has passed the revised Road Traffic Act (RTA).
All things being equal, it will be passed into law in another three months. This, after a gestation period which dates back to 2003 when the then Ministry of Works asked the National Road Safety Council (NRSC) to help revise and modernise the RTA. So now we have a very useful instrument which, if accompanied by an effective ticketing and demerit system, can help to make a huge difference in the coming years. In this respect, the NRSC continues to work closely with several government agencies to ensure that warrants issued are free from error – prosecuting individuals who have paid already – and facilitating the execution of the warrants; a major logistical, but not insurmountable, problem.
The next step in the process is to have the accompanying regulations – which includes the new fines – finalised. Again, if managed with urgency, this should be done in a relatively short time.
On the horizon also is the long-awaited roll-out of a system to provide electronic enforcement to augment the role and function of the traffic police. This move is expected to reap huge rewards in driving down injuries and deaths on the nation’s roads and is one that the NRSC has been lobbying for, for years, and also assisting in providing the necessary technical support.
In respect of the category of road users who are dying, motorcyclist fatalities continue to pose a very real challenge – ever since 2015, when there was a 70 per cent increase in the number of bikers who died compared with 2014.
BIKER DEATHS
In addition, the NRSC, following the surge in motorcycle deaths between 2014 and 2015, from 65 to 111, a 70 per cent increase, continued its policy of targeting this category of road users, to achieve meaningful reduction in the number of fatalities. The strategy of mobilising all members of the council, in particular the Traffic Police, the Road Safety Unit of the Ministry of Transport, the insurance sector, the Jamaica Gasolene Retailers Association, and others, including specialist groups working with bikers, along with sending messages through the media, enabled us to reap some success in this specific campaign. Since 2016 there has been a downward trend; 96 – 2016, 97 – 2017. The fact is that this 70 per cent increase alone is responsible for yet again the NRSC failing to meet its target of #BELOW300.
The NRSC is therefore very encouraged by the provision in the new RTA which mandates that all learner drivers/bikers will have to pass the Road Code test before being granted that permit. Further, unlike the current free-for-all unregulated situation, within six months, bikers will have to apply for permanent licences, having gone through a period of training. And all learner bikers will have to be accompanied by a biker, riding closely, who has a licence. Along with driving down pedestrian deaths, the second leading category of users who perish on our roads, the spotlight on motorcyclists will continue to be an urgent matter for the NRSC in 2018.
TIMELY INJURY DATA
One of the serious challenges which the NRSC has encountered is receiving timely injury data from the health authorities. And it is an important matter, even though admittedly a difficult one to fix, for one can get a false impression of progress in the road safety arena if we are not tracking carefully the amount and kind of injuries which people are suffering; causing, in many cases, severe financial distress to families and placing a great strain on the resources of the health sector. This with the Cost of Care Study carried out by the Violence Prevention Alliance headed by Dr Elizabeth Ward, involving The University Hospital of the West Indies and six other hospitals, revealing that for JanDec 2014 the cost of road traffic injuries was $3.2 billion; 19 per cent of the total Ministry of Health (MOH) goods and services for 2014. Estimated costs, without considering intensive care unit costs, severity of injury and disability costs ... . We are hoping that with closer collaboration (armed with a more efficient tracking system) with the MOH we can begin to alert the nation about this important aspect of the road safety campaign, in the same way that fatality figures are highlighted.
Finally, very sobering data is emerging from well-respected research centres internationally, that even though public education and enforcement remain key parts of the road safety campaign, they will not provide the kind of dramatic decrease in the level of fatalities that is needed to reverse this public-health scourge, especially in developing countries where most of the problem is located. Hence the need for a safe system approach which the NRSC has begun to promote at the highest level. A system which is undergirded by a philosophy that places joint responsibility on both road users and those who design the transportation system; so that human beings, who will make errors, when they do, are not punished by death and injury.
Hence the need to have safe speeds, safe vehicles, safe roads, and safe road users; all working together to create an environment that assists in the ambitious target of zero road fatalities. The introduction of such an approach, to augment and not replace the current strategy of getting drivers and pedestrians to be more responsible and more careful on the roads, will necessarily require careful management, and a commitment to pump more funds into the road safety efforts. But if done successfully, it can be a game changer, in a country desperately in need of a shift in the culture of not only how we use the roads, but more fundamentally, how we treat each other. Especially the poor and needy. For as the well-respected World Resources Institute reports, “Road safety is a matter of poverty”. As it is primarily the vulnerable who are dying, motorcyclists, pedestrians and pedal cyclists – in Jamaica, consistently over two thirds of the fatalities. And no doubt most of those injured. Time for action. As for many we are already too late. And for the others, time is running out.
CHANGES TO MAKE
Looking ahead to 2019 and beyond, some very critical things will have to be dealt with if as a nation we are to experience any kind of reduction in the carnage on our roads:
Fix the ticketing system and make it a really effective deterrent.
Introduce cameras to augment the work of the Traffic Police; including the placement of cameras at critical road sections to monitor and collect
IIspot speed data and average speed over distance. A system of monitoring which can push out alerts to the police when speeds are an unacceptable high levels. A dynamic system which will force motorists to drive at safe speeds when their vehicle speed is being monitored.
Ramp up significantly the, activities and numbers in the, Police Public Safety and Traffic Management Team.
Quickly adopt the new Safe Systems Approach; which would include inviting iRAP (International Road Assessment Programme) to assess our roads and help bring all of them up to at least a Three Star ( highest 5,
IIlowest 1) road, and introducing traffic calming measures where necessary, , importation of safe cars in keeping with the UN Standards and NCAP ( new car assessment programme), ensuring that all roads have safe speeds assigned to them ( e.g., 30 kph or less in built-up areas, and not more than 110 kph in high ways where there is little chance of a head-on collision; and ensuring that we have safe road users, not driving under the influence of marijuana or alcohol, and not distracted ... cell phones, videos.
Improve significantly, with additional resources, our public education programme targeting those who speed and the vulnerable road users.
Provide additional resources from the GOJ and the private sector to the NRSC to make it a really effective and sustainable organisation, with an additional mandate to carry out research in collaboration with a university, and to be able to better manage the critical issue of data collection, analysis and distribution of injury and fatality data.
Act on the recommendations made by the soon-to-be-released Research Project carried out by The Injury Centre of Johns Hopkins University titled ‘A Gap Analysis’.
Continue the focus on Child Health and Road Safety: A collaborative effort by JN Foundation, UNICEF, FiaFoundation, and a Spanish Company - Albertis, and fully supported by the NRSC
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