Gov’t agencies take on number of traffic accidents

More often than not most Mondays, one of the sad facts we have to report are the traffic accidents that have taken place over the weekend. So it should come as no surprise that according to the experts, every year eighty-three people will never get where they are going. With that fact in mind, this week, a group of government agencies have taken it upon themselves to try and help reduce the number of accidents on our highways. With thousands of Belizeans on the road everyday travelling to their jobs, the agencies have decided to focus on the commuting population. Their theme is “Promoting safe commuting for a productive workforce.” Members include representatives from the Transport Department, the Ministry of Works, the Belize City Traffic Department, the Ministry of Health, the Police Department, the National Drug Abuse Control Council and the Social Security Board. According to Dalia Castillo of the S.S.B., the initiative is still in the planning stages, but plans are underway to develop a national public information campaign in three areas: infrastructure, education and legislation and enforcement. They hope that the startling statistics they will provide will make motorists slow down. And those statistics are scary. According to the National Health Information and Surveillance Unit, traffic accidents were the leading cause of death for Belize in both 1999 and 2000. While the statistics for 2001 are still being prepared, in 2000, two hundred and thirty-seven people were hospitalised because of traffic accidents.