Transport Stakeholders Evaluate Road Safety Program

Today, stakeholders across the transport industry gathered at the Biltmore to evaluate the progress of the National Road Safety Program, which started in 2014. It is the second round of consultations for the three-year pilot project, which comes to an end in 2016. The Road Safety Commission is identifying policies to incorporate in a Road Safety Strategy – A Vision 2030. The plan of action remains the same; that is to wipe out loss of life due to traffic fatalities.   Consultant, Macy Johnson, is validating the long-term road safety strategy for the country. Ervin Thimbrel and Crispin Jeffries of the Ministry of Works and Transport spoke to News Five today about the workshop.

Crispin Jeffries, Chief Transport Officer

“This project has an objective and it is looking at reducing road fatalities totally. So the long term strategy is to all zero deaths to 2030 on our highways.”

Duane Moody

“We know that since the inception of the road safety project, the focus has been primarily on the George Price highway. Talk to us about the success that you guys have seen so far with all the infrastructural work and protocols put in place. And moving forward, focusing on other highways; mainly the Phillip Goldson.”

Ervin Thimbrel

Ervin Thimbrel, Central Zone Engineer, Ministry of Works & Transport

“What is being done right now is a demonstration corridor. The demonstration corridor is putting in those safety features on the highway and then an evaluation will be done after the project is completed. That is not to say that during the duration of the project that data is not being collected to see the positive impacts that we are getting. The idea, however, is at the end of the program to bring back the IRAP team that did the initial survey and to compare the results that we currently have and to see what are the others things that need to be done to improve the road to the standards where we want it.”

Crispin Jeffries

Crispin Jeffries

“One aspect that I believe the media has been helping us with and I believe there is a need to emphasize, is that a lot of what we are doing are focused on improving safety on the highway. However, it is the human error that contributes a lot to what is happening out there. So we would want to say that a major part of the strategy is to look at driver training, driver behavior and how to do things that will not have us resort to penal measures rather than to have educational strategies to help the drivers.”