‘Crash Free Friday’ considered a success
Wed, 01/18/2017 - 12:00am
Late 2016 saw the success of an initiative produced by the Barbados Road Safety Association (BRSA) called “Crash Free Friday”.
In an interview with The Barbados Advocate, Carson Lee, an executive member of the BRSA said with all things considered, it was a Friday that they would definitely count as a success.
President of the Association, Sharmane Roland-Bowen agreed with Lee and explained that with the help of the Royal Barbados Police Force, they were able to monitor the collisions for each Friday for the month of November 2016. It was revealed to them that there was an average of 30 collisions every Friday. However, for the “Crash Free Friday”, which was the last Friday in November 2016, police reported that the number of collisions dropped to 17.
Although it would have been nice to have no collisions for that day, Roland-Bowen said that they still considered the day to be a successful one. She explained that the Friday was the weekend before the 50th Anniversary celebrations which meant that droves of people were out on the road.
“To only have 17 collisions even though it was a busy day is quite successful,” she said.
Lee went on to explain that the BRSA worked as an entity to produce “Crash Free Friday” as a way to simply promote safe driving practices for at least one Friday of the month. He divulged that they worked closely with the Royal Barbados Police Force and the Ministry of Transport and Works to continuously promote safe driving and noted that the BRSA never works without the permission and co-operation of these two organisations.
Lee further pointed out that the Association felt like it was important to have the initiative late November because it would have been one of the busiest months of the year as well as tourist season. He also said that across the Caribbean society, it is generally common for Fridays to be considered the most rushed day of the week for commuters and shoppers and that was one of the reasons that they pushed for the initiative.
“The initiative was very well received and we had good feedback. We look at that as a success,” he concluded.