ORINCO Joins National Road Safety Initiative

The Organization of Insurance Companies, ORINCO, is the organization under which insurance companies are members.  And as an initiative to reduce traffic accidents in Belize, all insurance companies will be at various locations across the city providing reflector stickers to the cyclists and motorcyclists. It is being done in collaboration with the effort being done by the National Road Safety Commission to reduce road traffic accidents by twenty percent by 2016. News Five spoke today with General Manager of RF and G Life Insurance Company about why it was necessary to embark on this initiative.

Rhonda Lecky, General Manager, RF&G Life Insurance Company

Rhonda Lecky

“Traffic accidents pose a burden on our economy. We have had since 2006 until now; we’ve been having over two thousand three hundred and fifty accidents per year. We’ve noticed a reduction because in 2007 it had reduced. So we have noticed a reduction in accidents but we have not reached the goal of twenty percent reduction. And so in order to assist in this effort, we will be distributing to bicycles and motorcycles, stickers, reflector stickers which will indicate that there is a bicycle nearby when it is dusk or it is night. So we will be giving these out on the thirty-first of October and different insurance companies will be stationed at different points to distribute the stickers, the reflector stickers for bicycles. And we want to let the public know that if they would like to get one of these they would need to come to one of these areas and we will be happy to affix a reflector sticker to their bicycles. We think that this will help tremendously in reducing the number of accidents on our roads. ORINCO, the Organization of Insurance Companies, have been involved in these initiatives over a long period of time. Each company does its part. We go in and speak to schools about safety and we speak to people who come in to get insurance for their vehicle, through the general company; and even people who want to be insured with just health insurance because a lot of time people don’t realize that it is not just death by accident. It is a lot of pain and sometimes disfigurement and things that you have to live with for the rest of your life. It is a very serious issue for both general and life insurance companies to help to reduce the number of accidents on the roads.”