From tragedy to reform – The next frontier in road safety

On July 29, 2025, Jamaica lost Garfield Batts, a 59‑year‑old mechanical engineer, in a manner both sudden and profoundly preventable. His motor vehicle plunged off the roadway into the Rio Cobre River in the Bog Walk Gorge, St Catherine. The gorge, with its narrow bends and treacherous proximity to the river, has long been a site of accidents and fatalities. Batts’ death was not an isolated event, but part of a grim pattern that has haunted Jamaican motorists for decades.