The Ministry of Public Infrastructure will be initiating a road safety public media campaign in an effort to reduce road accidents.
According to a GINA press release, the Ministry’s Senior Traffic and Safety Engineer, Kester Hinds on Tuesday told GINA that the campaign was decided on because of the recent increase in road fatalities. “We have recognised there has been an increase in accidents on our roads. This weekend alone (last weekend) we had a few accidents and so we’re looking to sensitise persons on proper use of the road,” the release quoted Hinds as explaining.
“The campaign when it was initiated was conceptualised to target drinking and driving so those messages will also be included in the campaign,” the release quoted Hinds as adding.
According to the release, the campaign is expected to be launched before year end and will utilise excess funds from the US$46.8M West Coast Road Improvement project.
Meanwhile, the release stated, the road project is 40 percent completed to date. Hinds explained that currently the contractors are constructing concrete drains and sidewalks, repairing culverts, overlaying the existing surface, marking the road, and installing street lights and traffic signs among others.
“All of those are items that are part of the contract. Of course many of them are phased because you can’t mark the road until it’s completed.
There are also some sections where we are moving utilities so we are working on all these items, some of them in a simultaneous manner,” the release quoted Hinds as explaining.
The project which began in January 2015 will cover a length of 30.7 kilometres of the West Coast road, Region Three and has a completion date of December 2017.
The project is funded by the Government, the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) among others.
