KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Road Safety Unit of the Ministry of Transport and Mining, in partnership with TOTAL Jamaica Limited, has launched its annual Children Against Reckless Driving (CARD) programme. 

Launched at TOTAL’s Hope Road Offices, in St Andrew on Wednesday, the programme is geared at increasing awareness around road safety to reduce traffic crashes.

The partnership sees the Road Safety Unit executing a yearly campaign with TOTAL to educate and empower children across Jamaica, especially at the primary school level, about the need to be safe on the country’s thoroughfares.

Under the 2021 programme, the partnership will be extended to include the National Works Agency (NWA), to implement the refurbishing in some cases and construction in others, of several pedestrian crossings in high traffic areas across the island.            

The first will be along Hope Road in the vicinity of Campion College and Total’s New Head Office.

Speaking at the launch, Director of the Island Traffic Authority (ITA), Kenute Hare,  said the Ministry of Transport and Mining is very pleased with the partnership that has been developed with TOTAL Jamaica.                                                                                       

He said that the corporate entity has been “very instrumental in supporting our Children Against Reckless Driving flagship programme.”                                                                    

Hare pointed out that although it has been in the making for quite a while, it is good that the project is now at the execution phase.                                                                                                            

“We are happy for the support and the commitment, not only to paint pedestrian crossings, but also to help us to enhance our road safety operations in the schools. The assistance to the National Works Agency and the Government and the people of Jamaica is profoundly appreciated,” the ITA director added.                                                                          

Hare said it was very refreshing for the launch to be done during the United Nations Global Traffic Safety Week, which is being observed between May 17 and 23.            

For his part, Managing Director of TOTAL Jamaica, Christopher Okonmah, said that the entity is willing to partner with the RSU and the NWA on any initiative that they are doing that will bring about road safety for the children of the country.                

“It is good we start from now to educate our kids on the need to respect road safety which is very important. We are available as TOTAL within the resources we have. We will always ensure that we support any initiative that you come up with or that we come up with and we also need your collaboration, in order to make sure that our roads are safe for us and for our children,” he added.