The Minister of Transport and Housing, the Hon. Jobeth Coleby Davis along with officers of the Traffic Division of the Royal Bahamas Police Force took to the streets on Monday to promote road safety.
Minister Coleby-Davis spoke to ZNS News about the initiative. She said, “we’ve been getting quite a number of reports of the traffic fatalities as of recent and across the various family island as well so, we came together and we launched the Road Safety Week and today is Road Safety Visibility Day. And what we are trying to do is get out of the offices and speak directly with the motorists and that pedestrians to encourage them to practice safety during the use of the road. And so we’ve provided them with a pamphlet that has safety tips on it for pedestrians and motorists and then we also have a hand band that says ‘road safety starts with me.’
For his part, Officer In Charge of the Traffic Division, Chief Superintendent David Lockhart, who was also visible on the streets addressed the number of fatalities thus far for the year. “The fatality count stands at six for the year which is an alright number for right now we don’t want to see it go beyond that. This morning we concentrated on three areas, major traffic areas, one was at Gladstone Road and JFK Drive, one was at Tonique Darling and Milo Butler, the other was East Street and Independence Highway. Those three intersections carry a large volume of traffic. And we were not really reporting persons, we were just out here bringing awareness to road safety as this is Road Safety Week. Despite this being road safety week we will continue our job to try enforce road safety throughout the entire year. We also say that if you adhere to the road traffic rules and regulation then you shouldn’t have an issue with the police. But we know that there are a large amount of vehicles that are driving on the road that are unlicensed, uninsured that is a very big concern.”
