Author: @JIS_webmaster7

The Jamaica Urban Transit Company Limited, JUTC, is reporting that there were 2 separate incidents on its buses resulting in injuries to passengers and damage to units yesterday.

The injuries to the passengers are not considered critical.

According to preliminary reports, at approximately 3:20pm, a route 97 bus (which plies Downtown to Bull Bay) was travelling along the intersection of Windward Road and South Camp Road, when passengers began shouting they can’t breathe. It’s understood that there was an altercation between students when one of them sprayed pepper spray. The driver reportedly opened the front door to get passengers out of the unit, while other passengers reportedly broke the side glass of the unit, both right and left in a bid to exit the bus. It is understood that police personnel who were passing by observed what was happening and provided assistance. The student who released the pepper spray was pointed out and was taken into police custody.

In the second incident, a stone was hurled inside a bus travelling from Half Way Tree to Spanish Town on route 32B at around 7:40pm in the vicinity of Eastwood Park Road and Courtney Walsh Drive. One passenger was injured, but his wounds are not considered life-threatening. The bus was intercepted by the Police along Washington Boulevard near Marverley, and a male passenger was taken to hospital.

The JUTC is encouraging persons who filmed the two incidents and anyone else who may have information, to provide it to the police to help in their investigations. We are also pleading with those who would seek to perpetrate violence, the hoodlums who engage in this reckless practice of stoning our buses to stop it! Such actions only serve to diminish the service we provide to the travelling public and endanger their lives. 

 

The Jamaica Urban Transit Company Limited has noticed in recent times that commuters to include students, who use our service at North and South Parade downtown, Kingston, specifically at our lay-bys, have been doing so recklessly. Commuters have been engaging in the dangerous practice of running along buses as the unit enter the lay-bys in an effort to get inside of them. This practice is wholly unsafe and could result in injury or worse, a fatality.

Corporate Communications Manager Cecil Thoms is encouraging commuters to observe proper road usage.

“We understand the challenge currently being experienced and the frustration that the long waiting time is causing. However, we implore teachers, parents and guardians to remind children/students not to rush or run alongside a bus before it comes to a complete stop. Students and adult passenger alike must wait on the sidewalk or curb until it is safe to enter the bus” Mr. Thoms said.

Continuing, he noted that “the JUTC will be reaching out to schools to enlist the support of Principals, the Road Safety Council and parent teacher groups in reminding students about proper road usage as well as good pedestrian behaviour. While we make this appeal, we are also encouraging our adults to be proper role models and to protect our children”.

Additionally, we know that as the Christmas season approaches, there will be more demand for our service and as such we are doing all we can to increase our bus rollout to reduce crowding at our lay-bys. We ask for your continued patience and understanding as we look forward to receiving brand new buses next year.

The Jamaica Urban Transit Company, JUTC, is advising commuters that there will be an increase in the replacement of Smartercards effective Monday, September 26, 2022. This is due to a significant increase in the production cost of our Smartercards by our international supplier.

Concession passengers will now pay $400 up from $300.
Adult passengers will now pay $700 up from $500.

No fees are attached to new Smartercards. However, customers are free to determine how much they wish to load on the card.

The Smartercard is a convenient rechargeable system used by JUTC passengers to pay for their fares.

If you have any questions, please visit Customer Service, or call 876-948-4240.

 

The Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) has for over two decades, been relied on to transport large groups of people and carry our children to and from school. Our commuters are primarily from the working class and those sections of the population deemed most vulnerable. While safety is our utmost priority, we cannot predict collisions, accidents or incidents example stone throwing. However, we can and have been engaged in several mitigation programmes to reduce accident numbers.

Since April 2017 to March 2022, we have had a total of 3, 963 accidents which is inclusive of accidents where third parties are at fault and/or contributed to the accidents. Please see breakdown of the number of accidents in each year below.

• April 2017 to March 2018: 1,049
• April 2018 to March 2019: 1,033
• April 2019 to  March 2020: 891
• April 2020 to March 2021: 543
• April 2021 to March 2022: 447

 

An analysis of the data reveals a few things, firstly, that since April 2017 to March 2022, there has been a 57% reduction in accidents. Secondly, year over year, the number of accidents have been trending down from 1,049 in 2017 to 1,033 (16 less accidents) in 2018. Between 2019 and 2020, there was a 33% decline in accidents with 891 and 543 respectively. While for 2021 to March 2022, there were 447 accidents.

Corporate Communications Manager Cecil Thoms says “we are coming from a period where the number of accidents was particularly high but have since stabilized, which suggests we are doing something right. We have implemented several mitigation programmes which are bearing fruit and we will continue on this thrust. These include but are not limited to constant training and retraining, one on one dialogue with members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force on Road Safety, internal accident reductions sessions as well as applying disciplinary sanctions where possible. Our goal is to not have any accidents, but this is not an ideal world and so from time to time, there will be. Nonetheless, we will continue to do all we can to preserve life and property and encourage road users and other motorists to do the same.”