NEGRIL, Westmoreland– President of the Negril Chamber of Commerce, Carey Wallace is frustrated over a three-month delay by the Road Safety Unit (RSU) in the Transport and Works in implementating traffic calming measures along the Norman Manley Boulevard, designated as a hot spot by the police.

“They (RSU) promised us for March…I called them they promised April, nothing happened. Now we are in June so I have to be calling all the time…At times one gets the impression they don’t prioritise Negril or the (tourism) industry as they should,” said an annoyed Wallace.

But noting that the Negril Chamber of Commerce had proposed to foot half of the cost of the operation, the RSU director Kenute Hare said that mechanisms to address Negril’s traffic woes are currently being finalised.

“We understand the impatience with people when they want things done immediately but it does not really work that way at all. We are looking at the best methodologies to deal with the issues so things are on the drawing board to get done. We had a meeting in the ministry and we are going to have a meeting with the Negril Chamber in two weeks,” noted Hare.

Hare further noted that another section of the Westmoreland roadway has been targeted by the RSU.

” That area is not the only area in Westmoreland. We are looking at the entire stretch from Llandillo to the Negril round-about because there are sections along that roadway that we have to deal with becasuse those roadways account for the bulk of the fatlities in Westmoreland,” he said.

However Wallace said that the Norman Manley Boulevard is considered one of the hot spots as far as traffic accidents and fatalities are concerned.

” We get a double blow whenever we have accidents on the Boulevard because this is a tourist town. We have tourists that have been killed as well and as result it impacts adversely. It is the loss of a life and any life is precious to us but on top of that it creates a negative repurcussion in the market and hence it is something that the chamber is doing work on to try and alleviate that situation,” he said.

Wallace further argued that in an effort to address road fatalities along the Norman Manley Boulevard, the Negril Chamber of Commerce had a pilot study done a year ago which led to the installation of a camera along the Norman Manley Boulevard to register the licence plates of speeding motor vehicles.

However, according to Wallace, the RSU has so far failed in its effort to lobby Parliament for the passage of a bill to ticket speeding motorists caught on camera.