B’dos battling ‘disproportionate’ number of road fatalities

Even though Barbados has met the United Nations’ Small Island Developing States (SIDS) goal of reducing road fatalities by 25 per cent, there is still much left to be done.

That is the word from Acting Prime Minister and Minister of Transport, Works and Water Resources, Santia Bradshaw, who has maintained that additional work is needed to effect behavioural change and maximize compliance with the law.

Bradshaw made the remarks while delivering the feature address at this morning’s opening ceremony of the 10th International Road Federation (IRF) Caribbean Regional Congress at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.

She pointed out that with a population of 280 000 and 120 000 vehicles on the island’s roads, Barbados experienced a disproportionate burden of annual road accidents.

“There were 129 persons dying tragically on our roads at an average of 17 fatalities per year since 2014. Over the last three years however, that average has declined to 13 fatalities per year. The island was on lockdown for the most of 2020 as in other Caribbean territories because of COVID, but fared particularly better in 2021 even after fully re-opening the economy. While these numbers may seem small, every loss of life on the road is preventable.

“While it may be said that we have realised the United Nations’ Small Island Developing States goal of 25 per cent reduction in road fatalities, we must still do more to ensure that entrenched road safety is underpinned by innovative solutions that not only effect behavioural change by road users but also maximises compliance of the law,” Bradshaw noted.

She said as part of efforts to reach the UN goal Government had launched several initiatives and was in the process of rolling out others including electronic vehicle technology, electric buses for public transportation services, GPS on all public transport units, a cashless fare payment system, breathalyser testing, alternative fuel levy, fuel tax, the establishment of a Mass Transit Authority and public education campaigns.

She acknowledged that any planned improvements to road infrastructure had to take into consideration climate change.

Bradshaw revealed that between 1990 and 2008, the Caribbean experienced 165 natural disasters ranging from hurricanes, volcanic and seismic activity, natural disasters, drought, ocean acidification, and sea level rise.

She said the total damage and loss impact during this period was estimated to be US$136 billion, with the economic impact being the highest at US$63 billion.

“The need for climate resilience is a mandatory requirement for us small Caribbean islands. These events devastate our economies and our lives with increasing magnitude and dislocation every year,” Bradshaw said.

However, she admitted that access to funding was proving to be problematic.

“The cost of addressing these challenges, placed in the system of country finances must be serviced from somewhere. What we now see in the Caribbean since the COVID-19 pandemic is that the financing gap in this region and its external debt are continuing to grow beyond sustainable limits.

“…Despite Barbados’ commitment to prioritize its road infrastructure, the reality is that our financial capacity matched against the needs of a fit-for-purpose climate adaptation infrastructural programme remains unbalanced given the range of increasingly intense weather events.

“It would be imprudent for us not to consider how these events impact the way we conceptualise, design and build, in order to unlock, protect and fully utilise the resources we have in order to achieve infrastructural integrity,” Bradshaw said.

She also said Barbados was set to embark on one of the island’s largest road infrastructure resiliency campaigns worth US$215 million. (RB)