For quite some time, it has been among the government’s declared plans to establish a committee that will deal with matters of road safety in Antigua and Barbuda.
Yesterday, the Ministry of Works announced that, under its auspices, the National Road Safety Council is just on the horizon.
“The National Road Safety Council will soon be in existence. This council and its eventual formation are being sponsored by the Ministry of Works. We began stakeholder consultation late last year and we had a number of committees formed. We did our research and what we have been doing in the interim is looking at other councils within the region and even outside the region to see how they operate,” said the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Works, Clarence Pilgrim.
Through this council, Pilgrim said, the country’s road safety standards will soon be heightened. The Council’s mandate would be to help in reducing traffic injuries, educating road users, and raising awareness.
However, Pilgrim hastened to add, the formation of that body will only be one element of a larger road safety plan.
“Our National Road Safety Council is not just an idea in isolation, but it is being done under the global plan – the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020. And, within this plan, all countries that are under the umbrella of the United Nations are expected to follow the actions within the plan. It’s a framework which has goals and specific objectives that once followed, it is believed will help to assist in each and every country’s road safety initiative,” Pilgrim stated.