JAA: advocating for sustainability

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Blessed with one of the world’s most beautiful environments, the Jamaica Automobile Association is determined to keep it and the country’s people safe, now and in the future

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Jamaica may be a small island but road safety is still a big concern for the JAA.

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Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness opens the Road Safety Hub at Police Traffic Headquarters in Kingston in 2017.

Below: The JAA provides roadside assistance and supports the Road Safety Hub at the Police Traffic HQ in Kingston (right).

JAA supporters have staged marches to campaign for safer driving practices.

The JAA runs driving programmes such as this one based in Swallowfield, St Andrew.

Unlike many motoring clubs in the country and across Latin America and the Caribbean, the Jamaica Automobile Association (JAA), a member company of The Jamaica National Group, has for decades positioned itself as more than a drivers’ club.

Established in 1924, for nearly 100 years the JAA has been and continues to be an influential player in road safety in Jamaica.

Similar to its parent organisation the JN Group, the mobility company is resolute about positively affecting the lives of its members – a philosophy that has influenced the products and services it provides.

“At its core, the JAA is an advocate for sustainability,” explains Earl Jarrett, President of the organisation and its visionary. “It’s an advocate that offers a range of services to its members so that they can travel confidently and safely, while at the same time obtaining the economic benefits to be derived from mobility.”

Operating in an environment in which more than 400 people die each year in motor vehicle accidents and almost twice as many are left with lifelong injuries, the JAA has been integral to the development

of a number of innovations in road safety, all targeted at educating and improving behaviour and practices among road users in order to save lives.

Over the years these innovations have included the Road Safety in Schools programme, which the JAA has pursued for more than two decades, and the launch of crash mapping – a first in the country’s history – which was pursued in partnership with its sister company JN General Insurance (JNGI) and the Mona Geoinformatics Institute, a research arm of The University of the West Indies.

This project spurred the development of the Crash Hot Spots campaign by JNGI to raise the motoring public’s awareness of dangerous areas in Jamaica’s road network, and also the establishment of the state-of-the-art Road Safety Hub in 2017. Manned and housed at the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s Traffic Headquarters in the capital, Kingston, the hub provides the police with real-time data on traffic incidents, particularly crashes.

“These innovations have extended to the very services the JAA offers,” explains Jarrett. The services go beyond the club’s

providing an expert and round-theclock service to its members.

“As with any movement, our vision for the future is to expand our membership and the services we offer,” says Smith.

roadside assistance and accident scene management, fleet management, Advance Card for fuel purchases, and valet and chauffeur services to include driver education and a comprehensive driver improvement programme.

“Effecting road safety requires being involved at both ends of the scale: you have to provide the services to react to incidents quickly and also support their prevention through education and behaviour change intervention,” adds Jarrett.

Over the years the JAA has expanded its services to include

Earl Jarrett, JAA President, at the launch of the club’s Approved Auto Repairers Programme.

support with disaster recovery, to ensure roads in Jamaica are safe following severe weather events such as hurricanes and tropical storms so that citizens can maintain access to services.

Led by a capable and qualified team that includes General Manager Wendell Smith – a tech innovator and former general manager of MC Systems, Jamaica’s premier tech company and a JN subsidiary – the JAA has maintained its role as an advocate for safe roads and sustainable development throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,

NEW VENTURES Prior to the pandemic, the company had begun expansion into the travel market, and as that sector recovers, the organisation says it will continue to expand in that area in the medium term.

Smith adds that the JAA will also be strengthening its foray into sustainable energy.

“Transportation is the third largest contributor to the Jamaican economy, and tourism our highest income earner, therefore there is much to garner by increasing our support in these areas,” he says.

“Our future rests on our use of energy and as a result sustainable mobility is another area in which we are engaged as we support the island’s main electricity supplier to bring electric vehicles to market.”

At the same time the JAA is continuing its advocacy for safe roads and Jamaica’s sustainable development, relying on its various

partnerships and networks to deliver information and training to road users.

These include its support of the FIA’s pilot project, the Safe & Affordable Helmet Initiative for motorcyclists, a group within which there has been an alarming increase in deaths and injuries in Jamaica over the past five years. The innovative FIA project is being implemented in collaboration with the National Road Safety Council (NRSC). Motorcyclists have consistently accounted for 35 per cent of road fatalities according to the Road Safety Unit of the Government of Jamaica’s Ministry of Transport and Works.

And through club President Jarrett, the JAA maintains a seat on various boards and committees that promote road safety and advocacy, among them the FIA World Council for Automobile Mobility and Tourism and the local NRSC. “The JAA remains committed to promoting sustainable development through safe and clean mobility,” concludes the JAA President. “We believe strongly that through continued advocacy, we will achieve safer roads in Jamaica and better opportunities to thrive.”

‘The JAA remains committed to promoting sustainable development through safe and clean mobility’ EARL JARRETT, PRESIDENT, JAA

Police shared road safety advice with children as part of the JAA-backed Road Safety in Schools Programme.