Minister of Works and Family Island Affairs, the Hon. Clay Sweeting recently outlined a new road safety initiative funded by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).  The surveying exercise is based  on three pillars engineering, education and enforcement.

Sweeting told reporters, “to support this effort the civil design team in the ministry has acquired a new state of the art equipment for our survey vehicles.  The equipment will play a crucial role in collecting data, in collaborating successfully with IRAP and the CDB’s (Caribbean Development Bank) assessment team to identify and implement necessary improvements.  Using IRAP globally recognized star safety ratings system we aim to evaluate our roads and more importantly develop or prioritize capital investment plan to enhance road safety.   This system has raised road from one star which is least safe to five star recognized as the safest will help us address critical safety concerns with data driven solutions.”

The Minister said that the technical team of the ministry is working closely with SEMIC, a traffic survey consultant from Mexico.  “Over the past two weeks, they have completed surveys in New Providence and will move to Grand Bahama shortly.  In addition to these surveys, we will collect and analyze historical accident data with assistance from the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Health and Wellness and the Royal Bahamas Police Force.  This is a collaborative effort which will help us to better understand the trends and to tailor solutions to our unique challenges.”