A crushed Nissan AD station wagon is lodged under a Ford dump truck, which lost control and slammed into it on the Shooters Hill main road opposite the Kirkvine Sports Club in Manchester, yesterday. One man is dead and his wife and young son hospitalised. Photo by Rayon Dyer

Latoya Grindley, Staff Reporter

The National Road Safety Council (NRSC) is reporting that males continue to have the higher fatality rate due to motor-vehicle crashes.

For the period January-June of this year, males accounted for 83 per cent of the fatalities resulting from crashes.

While data from the NRSC reveal that there has been a reduction in the number of fatalities in both genders, accident analyst, Kanute Hare, while speaking at yesterday's NRSC meeting, said that men are still at risk.

"This has been a continuous thing from as far as 2001, and I mean I am not saying that more women are to die, but we would want less men dying so that there is no imbalance in the society."

Rural areas

These accidents, Mr. Hare said, frequently occur in rural areas, especially on highways and newly renovated roadways. He attributes the majority of fatal crashes and fatalities to speeding.

He also indicated that one third of fatalities occur in the 20-39 age group. This, he said, could serve to be problematic, as the society is losing members of the productive sector.

Additionally, the data from the NRSC also show that the elderly, as well as child pedestrians, continue to be vulnerable to motor-vehicle collisions when using roadways.

Mr. Hare said rural areas again recorded the majority of pedestrian fatalities, which he said could possibly be due to the fact that there are no sidewalks or proper roadways, among other factors.

According to him, seven male children and four females have died since the start of the year due to motor-vehicle crashes in the age range 10-14. This, he said, is a twist as last year, most of the fatalities among children were within the five-nine age group. However, Mr. Hare said there has been a reduction in pedestrian fatalities.

"There has been a decrease by 43 per cent when compared with the similar period last year; however, our pedestrians again account for more than 60 per cent (of fatalities)."

The accident analyst said the Road Safety Unit has forecast that the number of motor-vehicle crashes and fatalities will surpass that of last year's.