Fatal road traffic accidents – such as the one which occurred this past Saturday and tragically took the life of a well-known biker – brings into perspective the realistic dangers of speeding, as well as an urgent need for enforcement as it relates to road safety regulations on the highways and bi-ways of Belize.

Today though, the Project Management Unit of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development released statistics – compiled by the Belize Police Department – which illustrate that the total amount of fatal road traffic collisions have actually declined over the past two years.

In their release today, the department stated that 2013 recorded a twenty-percent decrease in road traffic fatalities as compared to 2012 – with a total of 64 in 2012 as opposed to 51 in 2013.

In 2012, there were seven months that recorded five or more fatal road accidents, while in 2013 there were only three months which saw five or more fatalities due to road collisions.

The Ministry stated that as part of its Road Safety Project, which is aimed at making Belize’s roads safer, they are embarking on a campaign to save lives by using an integrated model design, and thus encourage the general public to join in tracking fatal road traffic collisions each month so as to compare them with the 2012 and 2013 statistics.