BRSA gives thumbs up to iRAP project

THE Barbados Road Safety Association (BRSA) is giving a thumbs up to the recently launched iRAP Project, which will see Barbados’ main road network being assessed and given safety ratings over the next six months.

 

A registered UK-based charity iRAP, which is dedicated to preventing road deaths and injuries, will be working with the Ministry of Transport and Works over the next six months to assess 500 kilometres of the local road network, inclusive of major highways, using a specially equipped vehicle owned by the Ministry.

 

President of the BRSA, Sharmane Roland-Bowen, had her say on the Inter-national Road Assessment Programme launched for Barbados. She lauded the Government for taking action to have safer roads for drivers and vulnerable road users.

 

“It is a great achievement. It is going to benefit road users, not just the drivers. You know we tend to build our roads with drivers in mind and forget our vulnerable road users. So where pedestrians are concerned and bicyclists and so on, even motorcyclists, they are really going to benefit from it,” Roland-Bowen commented.

 

“What this iRAP (Project) is going to be doing in layman’s terms, they are going to be assessing the roads, 500 kilometres of roads and they are going to make recommendations on what is needed to improve the safety of all types of roads for road users, not just motorists,” she added.

 

“It is star rated, from one star to five stars and we want to build on that, because what they work by is something called the Safe Systems Approach and it tells you that drivers are human beings and what human beings do, they make mistakes and by making a mistake, you should not be seriously injured or killed by (doing so). So our roads should be designed to compensate for any mistakes. We should have forgiving roadways, so that when motorists make an error, because as we know up to 90 per cent of our collisions are caused by driver error, they would not have to die by making mistakes,” she said of the initiative.

 

Given that Barbados has signed onto the United Nations’ Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020, she stated that it is commendable that steps are being taken in general to have road assessments carried out. Focus, she however noted, should also be placed on having safer vehicles; on efforts to reduce speeding, which often leads to fatal collisions; and there is need as well, she said, to look at post-crash care.

 

However, Roland-Bowen stated, “I am happy to see that our Government has made this step. Instead of just sitting and talking, they have taken action.” (RSM)