Road Safety
Every child needs a safe journey to and from school
COVID-19 update: As the COVID-19 pandemic evolves and schools reopen, we need to look at not only measures to help keep students safe at school by following COVID-19 guidelines, but also on their journeys to and from school. For more information on what UNICEF is doing globally, access Safe and Healthy Journeys to School: During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond.
Safe journey to school
Every child has the right to a quality education and should have safe journeys to and from school, whether they walk, ride, take public transportation or travel in private vehicles.
Sadly, road crashes and near misses impact our children – preventing them from accessing their education.
On the roads and at school entrances, our children are among our most vulnerable road users – many of our youngest children are not developmentally able to judge vehicle speeds and distance when making choices on their journeys to and from school.
UNICEF and our partners are committed to supporting the Safe System Approach to Road Safety, in alignment with the Global Plan of Action for the Second Decade of Road Safety, to ensure that our children, and their access to education are protected.
The problem
In Jamaica, road crashes are in keeping with global trends, and are a leading cause of death, especially among youth.
- In 2021, 483 road fatalities were recorded, of which 69% came from the most vulnerable groups of road users: pedestrians, motorcyclists and children.
- Of the road fatalities in 2021, 25 were children (0-17 years).
- A vast majority of road fatalities are young males (ages 20-24), accounting for 65 of the deaths recorded in 2021.
Actions we are taking
Since the start of UNICEF Jamaica’s Road Safety programme in 2017, we have collaborated with our non-government and government partners to deliver physical infrastructure and behaviour change activities so that children across the island will feel safer when journeying to and from school. Together we have:
- Conducted a Child Road Safety Assessment.
- Implemented 8 major school crosswalk improvements in 7 parishes.
- Rehabilitated 50 school crosswalks across the island.
- Supported road safety education activities with more than 12,500 primary school aged children in partnership with the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).
- Delivered a media campaign, using TV, radio and social media with a combined reach of 14.4 million.
- Augmented the delivery of in-school road safety curriculum through the creation of child-centred print and multimedia materials.
- Provided technical assistance to the updating of the National Road Safety Policy and Action Plan, aligned with the Global Plan of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030.
