KINGSTON, Jamaica – Prime Minister Andrew Holness is again appealing for motorists to take greater care on the nation’s roads to preserve lives.

He made the call while at a wake for Tameika Peart and her son Jahlani Wright on Olympic Way in his St Andrew West Central constituency on Wednesday night.

READ: Mother, son die in Mandela Highway crash

Peart, 40, and Wright, 17, died from injuries sustained after the vehicle they were travelling in crashed and overturned along Mandela Highway last week. Peart’s 12-year-old son Kheron-Jay Sutherland is the lone survivor of the crash which occurred as the family traveled from Olympic Gardens to their Cedar Grove, St Catherine home.

“We as a people have to be far more careful in how we use our roads,” Holness said, flanked by Peart’s grief-stricken son Kheron-Jay and her mother Kathleen Saddler.

“I am using this platform to appeal to all Jamaicans who are road users… please use our roads carefully, it will save your life,” the prime minister said.

A record 488 people were killed in traffic crashes in Jamaica in 2022, according to the Ministry of Transport’s Road Safety Unit (RSU).

The 488 people killed in 2022 came in one more than the previous record of 487 who perished in motor vehicle collisions in 2021.