Dear Editor, 

Recently I heard the vice chairman of the National Road Safety Council on RJR’s Beyond The Headlines, Dr Lucien Jones, giving a breakdown and classification of road deaths in Jamaica so far this year. He noted 296 deaths, four fewer than early projections of keeping road fatalities to under 300 in 2009. 

Dr Jones highlighted the leading parishes in road fatalities and the ages of the victims. He said that the death rate had increased among pedestrians and motorcyclists this year and a large majority had not been wearing helmets. 

I hope we can find out how many of the accidents involved vehicles with retrofitted, large diameter mufflers. Many young men favour them and it is said that these motorists now constitute the most dangerous road users. In many instances too, some route taxis are fitted with oversized mufflers.

If vehicles with oversized mufflers account for much of the carnage on the road, could this practice be outlawed?