‘There’s no way that we can continue on this path’
Vaz pushing for public education campaign to help reduce carnage on roads
Ashare of the millions of dollars collected in traffic ticket fines could be used for a major public education campaign aimed at stemming the carnage on the nation’s roads, if Daryl Vaz gets his wish.
Vaz, the minister of science, energy, telecommunications and transport, described the number of road crashes and fatalities as a national emergency, saying last week that the situation is getting from bad to worse and needs an immediate response through a properly structured public education campaign.
“There’s no way that we can continue on this path in relation to the loss of lives and the impact on families and our infrastructure, hospital services, etcetera, which is a national emergency,” Vaz told a press conference at his Trafalgar Road offices in St
Andrew last week.
Pointing out that while the 192 deaths recorded since the start of the year is 13 per cent less than the 205 recorded for the same period last year, Vaz stressed that this is “still totally unacceptable”.
He lamented that based on his enquiries there is no budget allocated to the Transport Ministry for public education and other activities surrounding road safety.
Vaz noted that the revenue earned from traffic fines are normally distributed between the Ministry of National Security, which gets 42 per cent of the funds, and the Ministry of Justice, which gets 18 per cent, while the balance goes to the consolidated fund through the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service.
“I made a simple recommendation out of that 100 per cent, the Ministry of Transport must get an allocation… it was accepted and the permanent secretary is awaiting a draft Cabinet submission to see exactly what the recommendation has been in relation to the allocation,” Vaz said.
Noting that in excess of $600 million in traffic ticket fines were collected between January 1 and June 2 this year, Vaz said a share of up to 25 per cent could fund a properly structured response to what is taking place on the roads.
He said the funds would not have to be used for public education only and could include the provision of helmets for motorcyclists as he made reference to Prime Minister Andrew Holness’s plan to distribute 10,000 helmets to motorcyclists. If those 10,000 were procured and used, he said, some of the deaths in recent weeks could have been prevented.
Vaz said the plan is to put in place a long-term campaign and “not the [transport] ministry finding $5 million here and another ministry finding $10 million here and running [the campaign] for three months and then it’s all over.
“You’re talking about something that has to be sustained and a plan in what is the message that we’re going to get into the psyche of the people that when they get behind that wheel the first thing that they remember before they move off is what they saw vividly on that screen, on the highway, what they saw in the television commercials in relation to something that would get them to say, ‘You know something, I better take it easy today,’ ” he said.
Vaz said that to ensure the sustainability of the intervention, the Government may need international assistance from organisations that do this every day and have seen the results.
“I look forward to that reallocation which will allow us to move very fast, but we cannot wait on that. We have to find other ways and means to be able to start the process, getting the solution in conjunction with the police to stem [the deaths] on the roads,” he said.