Jolted by the recent spike in fatal collisions, the St Thomas police have pledged to ramp up their presence on the main roads in the parish, especially as the Southern Coastal Highway Improvement Project (SCHIP) progresses.

Speaking at the monthly sitting of the St. Thomas Municipal Corporation on Thursday (May 11), deputy superintendent of Police in charge of operations, Oniel Thompson, informed that the division recorded three fatal collisions with five fatalities in the month of April, as opposed to one fatal collision with one fatality in the corresponding period of April 2022.

Year to date, a total of four fatal collisions with six fatalities have been recorded, compared to two fatal collisions with two fatalities for the 2022 corresponding period.

“What is happening here is that motorists are seizing the opportunity to… use the road which is not [yet] opened to get by quickly. The taxi men want to make their money, so as a result, they just speed to and fro, but our intention is to increase our presence on the main road,” Thompson said.

He added that as SCHIP progresses, “a lot of the main road is now being paved and they are capitalising on that, so we are out there, and you can see the police out there”.

Furthermore, the Deputy Superintendent said commuters should hold the police accountable to this commitment, stating that, “if for any reason you drive from here (Morant Bay) to Kingston and you don’t see the police, we’d love for you to call us”.

The St. Thomas leg of the SCHIP takes into account the roads from Harbour View to Yallahs Bridge, Yallahs Bridge to Port Antonio, and Morant Bay to Cedar Valley.

More than 8.5 kilometres of the 14-kilometre, four-lane roadway from Harbour View in St. Andrew to Albion in St. Thomas have been completed, and this section of the project is on track to meet the new completion timeline of August this year.