When there is an accident or a crime scene in Kingston, it sometimes affects the traffic across the city. Some time ago I was heading to work and I was on Washington Boulevard for over half an hour and it was clear that I would not make it to the studio on time. Drivers needed to be made aware of what was creating the traffic challenge. If people knew the challenge, they would use alternate routes of delay getting on the streets of Kingston at that time.
I indicated to my team at the station that I would not be on time station for the show. I have a phone with Google Drive installed. I accessed the material for the show using Google Drive. I linked with the station for the broadcast using ZOOM.
I glanced quickly at my phone to see what I should say on air. By this time I had sent out a broadcast message to my Bark Di Trute followers and responses indicated Halfway Tree was an active crime scene. I informed my listeners about the situation and kept them abreast of what was happening from the messages coming in from other supporters. It would be far better if I was getting accurate information from the police instead.
I first thought of a system with media practitioners working closely with key leaders, especially in the case of an emergency. The need for this was brought home to me dramatically after the earthquake last year. After the earthquake, the public lacked information and this caused many to panic. We needed real-time information from the ODM and the Earthquake Unit at the UWI to share with the public.
I worked with a few other media practitioners and set up a WhatsApp Emergency Alert System. This allows the Fire Chief, ODPEM head, and senior members of the JCF to send emergency information to media persons so that we can keep our listeners informed.
Today, we had a traffic snarl in the city and once again I see the need for us to use the Emergency Alert System so that those of us in media can provide real-time information to the driving public. This information would help drivers to avoid the problem areas and this would help to reduce the congestion in those areas.
The following was sent to me from a Bark Di Trute supporter about another traffic pile-up in Kingston today. Click the icon below twice to play the report from the Bark Di Trute supporter:
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| Traffic jam in Kingston this afternoon on Constant Spring Road. |
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ReplyDeleteI concur wholeheartedly! The buck stops with the constabulary information system and the ministries of security and information, but they're obviously ineffective and incompetent at the dissemination of information to the public and media houses.
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