Khan launches ‘Road Safe’ programme

In the midst of spiralling road fatalities and crashes, Minister of Works Franklyn Khan, on Wednesday launched “Road Safe” — a creative educational approach to road safety. The launch took place  at the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Westmoorings. The pilot programme, which is a collaborative effort between the Ministry of Works and Transport and Guardian General Limited (GGL), is targeted to pre-primary and primary school students and will be implemented on Monday thru December 2003. While officials from the Ministry will be responsible for visiting schools to conduct road safety lessons and activities, GGL will be sponsoring the learning aids and materials, such as board games, books and CDs for the project. Khan vowed: “Our aim is to develop a campaign that is not only visible but also truly impactful. It is a programme that shall not yield until the desired objective of reduced road carnage is seen as having been achieved.” He expects the pilot project to be sustained over an extended period, and as well, his Ministry to be involved in other collaborative unions which will tackle provisions and maintenance of traffic signs, reflective studs, road markings, crash barriers, lane dividers etc.

Earlier, John Gonzales, senior vice president of GGL, spoke of the impact which accidents had on productivity, the health sector and the insurance industry, noting that: “Motor accident claims cost the industry in excess of $150 million annually as there are over 25,000 reported accidents each year. This is just the cost of motor vehicle claims, exclusive of medical claim costs. Given these statistics, it stands to reason that road safety and proper road use should be the business of the insurance industry,” he declared. Gonzales also said that road safety and proper road use are issues that affect us all. It is everybody’s business.  He said he was looking forward to stemming the epidemic of road fatalities and poor driving habits on the nation’s roads. The programme is costing GGL $100,000 while they are in the process of finalising the budgetary requirements at national level.
Gonzales took the opportunity to call on other general and life insurance companies to come forward and do their part in the area of road safety. Also speaking at the launch was Richard Lawrence, marketing manager, GGL, who stated that with our population of just over 1.3 million, we are averaging over 150 road deaths annually.

He said this rate is among the highest per capita in the world. Lawrence added that statistics show that over 90 percent of accidents are due to driver error. “It seems as though once we receive our driver’s licence, we automatically forget our regulations and the Highway Code,” he said. Targetting children between the ages of three and seven in the pilot project was because these, Lawrence said, were the formative years of a child’s life, that is “when they learn right from wrong and all the values that they will carry  with them through life,” he said. The programme begins Monday at Newtown Boys’ RC, St Crispin’s Anglican, Western Boys RC, Tranquillity Government, St Monica’s and Sure Foundation. Training will be on walking on the street, crossing the street and safety in vehicles. Among those gathered at the launch were the Chief Traffic Engineer, Roger Israel, members of the  Ministry of Education and members of the Police Service.