Cedric Stephens | Road safety a national emergency

Communications consultant and Gleaner columnist, Major Basil Jarrett, wrote on Thursday about the need for the building of a national emergency response campaign following last Monday’s horrific crash along the Bustamante Highway.

Twelve-year-old Richard Tulloch of Turner’s district and 16-year-old Jody-Ann Lodge, of New Bowen’s district, and Lennon High School students, lost their lives due to the accident.

Major Jarrett refrained from discussing the cause of the accident, but gave no reasons for his decision. However, he supported the calls for a rural school transportation system that were made after the crash. Now is also the time for “a robust, public-private sector-led education campaign to teach Jamaicans how to respond in time of crises,” he said.

Such a campaign should focus on three key areas, namely, “basic emergency response and first aid training, ethical use of social media technology, and very importantly crisis response in the absence of ambulances or emergency vehicles”. This approach is like putting the cart before the horse.

Today’s article will explain why discussing and gaining a deeper understanding of the root causes of last Monday’s crash should be placed at the top of the national agenda. Preventing similar accidents and reducing the numbers of people killed and injured must be the priority.

World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims 2024 was underscored on November 17. Prime Minister Andrew Holness is chairman of the National Road Safety Council (NRSC). The council is mandated to reduce the number of crashes on the nation’s roads and promote road safety. The promotion of road safety is therefore a big deal.

In a statement marking the day, Holness said traffic accidents are the 11th leading cause of death. For 2024, 313 people lost their lives in 270 fatal crashes. That number has since risen. Over 10,000 people suffer injuries each year. These data, he argued, provide ‘compelling evidence that we need to move with urgency … improving speed enforcement, driving public education … improving road safety management and governance’.

Five months earlier, according to the Jamaica Observer, Darryl Vaz, minister of science, energy, telecommunications, and transport, called the number of road crashes and fatalities a “national emergency … the situation is getting from bad to worse and needs an immediate response through a properly structured public education campaign”.

“There is no budget allocated to the transport ministry for public education and other activities surrounding road safety,” he was reported to have declared.

If the political leaders agree that the country needs to move with urgency to address a national emergency, why have no funds provided for public education and other activities surrounding road safety in the budget? Why the misalignment between what government officials say and what they do?

Apparent cause of crash

Police sources say, according to the Jamaica Observer, that the Subaru Impreza, an illegal taxi, was travelling westerly on the Bustamante Highway towards Four Paths. It is alleged that the driver lost control and collided with the rear of an Isuzu motor truck around 8.30 a.m. The impact displaced the Subaru to the right side of the roadway where it overturned in the path of an approaching Toyota Probox, travelling in the opposite direction. Four passengers in the Subaru, all students, were taken to hospital where two died. The Subaru’s driver fled the scene, but was later seized by the police at Kingston’s international airport.

The Illegal taxi and the driver:

• The make of the taxi differs sharply from the typical motor vehicle that is used as an illegal public passenger vehicle or robot taxi.

• Photographs show that the illegal PPV did not carry red plates as required by regulations.

• Given the make of the vehicle and the brief time in which the 34-year-old driver bought an airline ticket for an alleged overseas trip, he has access to money.

• The driver allegedly disobeyed the orders of the authorities in May Pen to bring his vehicle to a stop before the accident occurred.

Insurance implications

Was the vehicle licensed as a private car and not as a PPV, but was engaged in carrying fare-paying passengers, as the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s Public Safety & Traffic Enforcement Branch asserted in its statement? If so, the legal personal representatives of the deceased and injured students are unlikely to receive compensation for their injuries under the Motor Vehicles Insurance (Third-Party Risks) Act.

This comment assumes that: a) the Subaru was insured under a standard private car policy; and b) the driver was the registered owner of the vehicle and was permitted by law to drive it. Private cars which are used as PPVs but are not licensed to do so are effectively uninsured. This is why the police and Transport Authority undertake operations to remove these vehicles from the roads. It is also probable that the vehicle was not insured.

The other parties in the accident, namely the truck driver, passengers in that vehicle and passengers, and driver in the Toyota Probox are unlikely to get compensation due to the collision with the illegal taxi which, as previously discussed, is assumed to be uninsured.

The sad thing is that even if insurance coverage were in place, the monetary limits in the law would be insufficient to protect all the injured parties and pay for the property damage to the truck and the Probox. The authorities are said to be increasing the limits in the act, but unfortunately, they will not benefit the families of the innocent victims of this accident.

Another alternative could involve filing a lawsuit against the owner and/or driver for damages to get compensation. This, like the other approaches, suggest that there are no easy or quick fixes to the heartbreak.

Different analytics

The Bustamante Highway accident must be carefully studied beyond the collection of data about number of persons who were killed and injured if a recurrence is to be avoided. This is what happens in relation to air traffic accidents. When the safety of road travel is compared to air travel, data consistently show that the latter mode of travel is safer than the former. The data say:

1. Road travel: The World Health Organization reports that road traffic crashes result in approximately 1.19 million deaths worldwide each year. The fatality rate for road traffic deaths is about 17.4 per 100,000 people in low-income countries and 9.2 per 100,000 people in high-income countries.

2. Air travel: Harvard research indicates that the risk of a fatal crash in air travel is about 1 in 11 million. In 2023, there were no fatal accidents or hull losses for jet aircraft, leading to a record-low fatality risk rate of 0.03 per million sectors. The statistic “0.03 per million sectors” refers to the rate of fatal accidents or hull losses (complete destruction of an aircraft) per million flights.

Aircraft accidents are investigated for several reasons. These are:

• Identifying root causes: Investigations aim to determine the underlying factors that led to the accident, whether they were technical failures, human errors, or environmental conditions.

• Improving safety: By understanding what went wrong, authorities and manufacturers can implement changes to prevent similar accidents in the future.

• Enhancing regulations: Findings from investigations often lead to updates in regulations and standards, ensuring a safer flying environment.

• Training and education: Insights from accident investigations are used to improve pilot training programs and operational procedures.

• Public confidence: Thorough investigations help maintain public trust in the aviation industry by demonstrating a commitment to safety and transparency.

With the country’s limited financial resources, it does not have the funds to thoroughly investigate all significant motor vehicle accidents. A representative sample, like last Monday’s event and others will suffice and provide more insights than the statistical data to which we have grown accustomed.

Cedric E. Stephens provides independent information and advice about the management of risks and insurance. For free information or counsel, write to: aegis@flowja.com or business@gleanerjm.com