من الأشهر اليوم؟

EMERGENCY responders in St James were kept busy Sunday and Monday this week having to deal with fatal crashes in the parish.A woman, a child and an adult male are listed among the three fatalities of three motor vehicle crashes that occurred within a 24-hour period.Forty-year-old Alicia Smith, a resident of Watson Town in the parish, died Monday night, hours after that of 12-year-old Jeff Fitzgerald and 59-year-old Ambrose Service on Monday morning and Sunday night, respectively.Smith succumbed to injuries sustained after a motorcycle on which she was travelling crashed into a Toyota Corolla on the Dumfries to Watson Town main road. She was the pillion on the motorcycle that was being operated as a taxi.She received a number of injuries which included several broken limbs that proved to be fatal, despite the best efforts of medical personnel. The driver of the motorcycle was still in hospital undergoing treatment.Fitzgerald, on the other hand, had lost his life when he was mowed down by a car along the Lilliput main road earlier on Monday morning. He was attempting to cross the road to access a taxi to get to school when he was struck by an Nissan AD Wagon that operates as a taxi as well. He later died at hospital.Service died on Sunday night after he was struck by a car along the Coral Gardens main road. Information provided to the Jamaica Observer is that a motorist passing through the traffic lights felt an impact. Service was later found to have been injured. He subsequently died.These deaths continue a worrying trend as it relates to road crashes that have occurred since the start of the year. There have been 64 road fatalities recorded in the country so far with 27 of those individuals dying on weekends.Fatalities are now expected to surpass 400 for a second year in a row, according to the Road Safety Unit. It is projected that 447 lives could be lost this year, although this figure would fall below the 482 recorded in 2021.Based on this trend, the unit is cautioning people using the roads to exercise extra care in order to change the projection.