Road Safety HUB Launched

The Government is now better equipped to develop road safety policies and programmes utilising traffic data, following the launch of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) Road Safety Hub.
Constructed at a cost of $8.2 million, the state-of-the-art road-safety-management facility, which is located at the JCF’s Traffic and Highway Division in downtown Kingston, will provide real time road crash and network data by the Mona Geoinformatics Institute.
Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, who officially opened the hub on Wednesday (November 15), noted that it “is a significant enhancement to our national priority of road safety”.
“The integration of geospatial technologies and services to improve data collection and analysis will add value to how we develop our policies and interventions related to traffic management,” he said.
Mr. Holness noted that more than 50 government entities have now implemented geospatial technologies in their operations, resulting in greater efficiency in the execution of their respective mandates.
He said the Government is working towards realising a digital economy by leveraging new data sources and technology to improve decision-making in the public sector.
Lamenting that 280 persons have been killed in 257 fatal crashes since the start of the year, the Prime Minister said he is pleased that the information to be provided by the hub will also aid in identifying road networks that are traffic accident ‘hotspots’.
He explained that with this data, the police will be able to carry out their functions more intelligently “using data to direct the application of their resources, but more than that, getting the information to prevent crashes from happening”.
In the meantime, the Prime Minister commended all the private-sector partners who made the establishment of the centre possible and are thereby bolstering the Government’s thrust to make the nation’s roads safer.
It was established in partnership with the JN General Insurance Company Limited, the JN Foundation and the Jamaica Automobile Association.
The facility will double as a homework and resource centre for residents in and around Central Kingston.