IN JAMAICA : Save Kids Lives The Priority in Child Month #Save Kids' Lives...."When we look at the statistics, children figure prominently enough in road crashes. And especially as pedestrians, they are vulnerable road users."

File In 2005, D Alfred Sangster (foreground) chairman od the
 Board of the Merle Grove High School, and then Transport
Minsiter Robert Pickersgill walk students of the school across
Constant Spring Road, St. Andrew, shortly after an electronic
pedestrian crossing was placed in front of the school.

Published:Sunday | May 3, 2015Chad Bryan Jamaica Gleaner

Jamaica's road-safety advocates are making an especially emphatic call to protect the lives of children, as the United Nations recognises May 4 - 10 as the third Global Road Safety Week. The Jamaican schedule of events was launched at the ATL Autohaus showroom located at 3 Oxford Road, St Andrew, on Thursday morning, and is under the theme 'Save Kids Lives'.

There is a Save Kids' Lives hashtag on social media website Twitter.

"As we approach the start of Child Month, we are very aware of, and deeply concerned about, the increase in deaths among our nation's children. We lose too many children to road fatalities every year. Road safety is a major area of concern and focus. It remains top priority for action because year after year many of our people, including our children, are killed," said Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, keynote speaker, who is chairman of the National Road Safety Council (NRSC).

File Students from Mona Heights Primary
 performing a cultural item at the launch of a
 road safety campaign in the Half Way
 Tree, St Andrew, in February

"When we look at the statistics, children figure prominently enough in road crashes. And especially as pedestrians, they are vulnerable road users. Motorists have an outer protection; our children, as pedestrians, they are unprotected. Children are also at risk on the road. We are talking to schools, the parents and principals," said executive director of the NRSC, Paula Fletcher.

Ian Allen/Photographer Prime Minister
 Portia
Simpson-Miller( right) hugs
 Najeebe Bayley
 (centre), a student at Mona
Height Primary School

A number of other speakers emphasised the importance of children's safety on the roads.

Citing grim statistics, director of the Road Safety Unit in the Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing, Kenute Hare, stated that every three minutes, a child is killed on the global road network. That translates into more than 500 children being killed daily and tens of thousands being injured worldwide.

Hare further pointed out that motorists, especially those operating taxis, should desist from carrying children in the trunks of motor vehicles. more