$15m in injury costs ‘too high’

Government has spent in excess of $15 million on injury costs caused by motor vehicle accidents in the last 13 years.
This was revealed yesterday by Richard Cox, public relations officer of the Barbados Road Safety Association (BRSA).
Cox said between 2 000 and the end of last year, 335 lives were lost on the roads while about 1 954 seriously injured people passed through the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) over the 13-year period. And he said this had nothing to do with the more than 3 000 slightly injured over the same period.
The BRSA official said this figure was relayed to them by reliable Government sources, adding this was too high a price in scarce financial resources and human suffering for a small country to pay.
“This is not good enough. [Accidents] place tremendous stress on all emergency services,” said Cox.