The Island Visitors Authority (ITA) has partnered with TotalEnergies on the petroleum entity’s ‘Helmet 4 Life’ initiative, which is meant to distribute licensed helmets to motorcyclists and pillion riders islandwide.
Supervisor for Company Communications and Public Relations on the ITA, Dontae Matthews defined that the enterprise goals to realize a discount in highway fatalities and severe accidents.
“Underneath the Helmet 4 Life programme, the ITA has obtained some 300 helmets, and we’ve began the distribution in parishes corresponding to Westmoreland and St. Elizabeth, particularly hotspot areas,” he stated.
Along with these obtained underneath the programme, Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, in June, handed over helmets to bikers in St Ann’s Bay, St Ann.
“These helmets have been bought by the Authorities. So we’ve helmets coming from completely different locations to bolster our efforts to realize higher compliance with helmet carrying.
We now have additionally partnered with the Nationwide Helmet Carrying Coalition, they usually too have distributed helmets,” Matthews knowledgeable.
“The partnership has elevated with completely different stakeholders… we’ve all been working to distribute helmets throughout the nation.
Additionally, the Kiwanis Membership is in receipt of helmets from the TotalEnergies Basis, they usually, too, have been distributing helmets. So, it’s a multi-sector strategy… lots of entities have been distributing helmets throughout the nation,” he added.
Matthews stated the helmets supplied by TotalEnergies weren’t instantly distributed, as checks needed to be made to make sure compliance with the requirements outlined within the Street Visitors Act.
The legislation states that helmets must be of European, United States, British or Japanese customary, and have a sticker indicating such.
“The helmets do meet the laws; so after that, we began our distribution. In November, we had a distribution drive in Brompton, St. Elizabeth and Petersfield, Little London and Culloden in Westmoreland, and we will probably be persevering with [this distribution],” Mr. Matthews acknowledged.
He underscored the significance of motorcyclists and pillion riders carrying helmets, stating that it will serve to cushion any blow they may maintain from a fall or crash.
“The helmet have to be a correct measurement, it will need to have a protecting padding on the within, it will need to have a retention strap and, after all, it have to be a licensed helmet, that means it meets the protection requirements. [If] you fall off a motorbike, the helmet will shield your head,” Matthews stated.
“Additionally it is necessary to notice that helmets do expire. So individuals, when they’re carrying a helmet, they need to test additionally for the expiration date that’s hooked up to the helmet.
Additionally, after a crash, the helmet have to be modified,” he added. Matthews stated the response from motorcyclists receiving the helmets has been “actually good”.
“In actual fact, once we distributed in Brompton, we had gotten some details about individuals who need helmets, and so we introduced helmets for them.
When the distribution began, individuals have been coming over, [after] listening to concerning the initiative, eager to get.
We have been out of helmets on a selected day, and we needed to make provisions to get helmets to ship again to St Elizabeth for them,” he acknowledged.
Knowledge from the ITA present that 119 motorcyclists have misplaced their lives on the nation’s roads because the begin of 2024.
