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Party Smarter message for safer driving

June 26, 2023

As road fatalities continue to slowly climb, fete chasers are being encouraged to party smarter this Crop Over season. That advice is coming from Banks Holdings Limited (BHL) which partnered with the Barbados Road Safety Association (BRSA) and pickUP Barbados for their road safety campaign, which encourages the public to drink responsibly and appoint a designated driver. "Road safety is an issue that affects each and every one of us. Every year, countless lives are lost or irreversibly impacted due to accidents on our roads. In 2022, statistics show there were nine road fatalities; we are into month six of 2023 and have exceeded the number for 2022. "We recognise that this is a problem that requires a collective effort, and we committed to doing our part in making our roads safer for everyone," country manager at BHL Shafia London said. She was speaking yesterday at the Newton, Christ Church brewery
where the campaign was officially launched. Public relations and media manager Sabrina Greenidge explained that as part of their campaign, they will set up billboards with the Party Smarter message, continue to set up sober zones at events and disseminate information via their merchandise, radio and social media. "We will have a very heavy presence on social media because that is where our target market and the partyers are so we will be doing a big investment in our social media," Greenidge said. Following the launch president of the Barbados Road Safety Association (BRSA) Roland Rowe thanked BHL for the initiative. "We want road users to be more cognizant of other road users, especially during the Crop Over season. We want to see them utilise designated drivers and be smarter as they go about partying. "So we are happy to see an entity such as Banks Holdings Limited taking their social responsibility seriously," he said. While they continue to advocate for breatherlyser testing, Lowe however said there were other factors that road users must take into account such as their speed, and the condition of their vehicles. "We are deeply concerned about the number of fatalities that we have seen on our roads. And while the utilisation of breathalyser testing will be at the backend, we want people to think more about what they are doing on the road, so we can see a reduction in the number of accidents.


"There are many contributing factors that come into play when there are accidents, one of them is speed, conditions of the road, and persons engaging in drunk driving. We want persons to be mindful of those things and try to mitigate those circumstances," he added. Operations coordinator at pickUP Hannah Gill said they were pleased to be a partner and she encouraged individuals to download the app, which features over 250 taxi operators. She promised that there was fare transparency. (TG )


BHL country manager Shafia London (third from left) showcasing their Party Smarter logo to (from left) BRSA president Roland Lowe, BRSA member Jamal Medas, BHL's public relations manager Sabrina Greenidge and operations coordinator at pickUP, Hannah Gill. The graphic will be erected on billboards as BHL rolls out its road safety campaign. (Picture by Lerma: Dwonish.)