Road safety celebrated

An official of the Barbados Road Safety Association (BRSA) says the Association’s Crash Free Friday Campaign was a success, even though some accidents did occur.

 

President of BRSA, Sharmane Roland-Bowen, speaking during the Association’s Awards Ceremony at the Alpha 126 Traffic School yesterday morning, said that on Friday, November 25, data obtained from the Royal Barbados Police Force suggests that there were almost 50 per cent fewer accidents than those recorded the previous Fridays in the month of November.

 

“It was a campaign that was the first of its kind and for that day, which was November 25, we would have asked all persons to make a special effort to be safe on that day, no accidents we wanted on our roads and I am proud to say it was a success,” she said.

 

Roland-Bowen added, “Yes, we did pick the last Friday which would have been the 25th, which would have been the most challenging Friday because as you know at that time there were a number of persons in Barbados for the Independence activities, so the amount of traffic on the roads would have been overwhelming. So we didn’t want something easy, we wanted something challenging so we picked that Friday for a purpose.”

 

She said while there was an average of 30 accidents on the previous Fridays in the month, on Crash Free Friday that figure dropped to 17. She suggested that based on the challenge posed by that day, to have the figure cut in half is still an achievement that should be celebrated. The initiative, she indicated, was sponsored by Adopt-A-Kilometre and Career Development Institute, and she expressed gratitude to both entities for helping to make it a reality, as well as the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation for assisting with its promotion.

 

Her comments came just moments before the Association distributed prizes to the Pledge Crash Free Friday winners. In the drivers category the first prize of $400 towards Road Tax went to Joshua Hatch; second prize of $200 towards the renewal of a driver’s licence for five years went to Jacqueline Bourne; and the third prize of $100 towards fuel, went to Michael Barton. Each winner also received a copy of the Highway Code and a safety vest.

 

In the pedestrian category, prizes were awarded to Eunice Thorpe, Fabian Gittens and Janet Best. They were each awarded $50, a copy of the Highway Code and a safety vest.

 

The BRSA also took the opportunity to present the winner of the Most Visible Attire at Night for the recently held Elite Sports, Glow Walk to 15-year Juliana Blackman, who in addition to receiving the funds to pay for her driver’s permit, will benefit from a free course in defensive driving from Public Relations Officer of the BRSA, Richard Cox.  

 

Also in winners’ row was 75-year old Nattalie Mayers, who received the Barbados Safe Driver of the Year Award. Mayers, who hails from St. George, has been driving 50 years accident free. 

(JRT)