The number of persons killed in motor vehicle crashes since the start of the year now stands at 255. This is a 5% increase over the corresponding period last year, while there has been an 8% decrease in the number of fatal crashes for the same period. Of this number, 74 are motorcyclists the majority of whom were not wearing protective helmets at the time of the crashes.

Westmoreland, St. Andrew, St. Catherine, St. Ann, St. Elizabeth, St. James and Trelawny continue to be the leading parishes contributing to the high rate of  fatalities.

Director of Public Relations and Communication in the Ministry of Transport and Mining, Vando Palmer, says, had it not been for ‘Operation Zero Tolerance’, which was launched in May this year, the situation would have been worse. According to Mr. Palmer, at the launch of the operation, road fatalities were running at least 20 deaths ahead of last year’s figures. He says the sustained joint presence of the police and personnel from the Island Traffic Authority (ITA) has resulted in the removal of approximately 2,286 pairs of license plates from defective vehicles and thousands of prosecution for various breaches of the Road Traffic At.

Mr. Palmer says Operation Zero Tolerance, which was initially a three month exercise, will be continuing beyond the end of this month because of its successes. He also says more focus will now be placed in the leading parishes for crashes and fatalities.