The Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) is appealing to motorists in the wake of an alarming trend in motor vehicle crashes involving its utility poles.

Since the start of the year, the light and power provider indicated that motor vehicle accidents have caused 799 power outages across the island, amounting to roughly four crash-related accidents per day.

The top three parishes with the highest number of outages due to motor vehicle accidents, from January to July, are St Catherine with 120 outages; Kingston and St. Andrew with 112 outages; and St. Elizabeth with 88 outages, all due to motor vehicles crashing into poles and breaking or dislodging them.

One single accident can result in thousands of customers being inconvenienced.

Additionally, these accidents also knock down streetlight poles, plunging major power consumption corridors into darkness.

As an example, in May, JPS catalogued an accident in St Catherine that resulted in a broken pole and caused outages in Thompson Pen Road, Lauriston, Mount Mooreland, Tryhall Heights and Keystone. A
total of 2,153 customers were left without power due to that single incident.

Further afield, in Westmoreland, where there have been fewer outages due to accidents, the impact of each accident can still be significant. For example, in Belmont in that parish, over the Easter weekend in April, a motorist attempting to enter his property missed his gate and crashed into a pole, breaking it. This resulted in a major outage from Font Hill to Auchindown, affecting roughly 3,000 customers.

Also on July 4, an accident in Kingswood, Westmoreland, resulted in an outage for over 2,000 customers. While over in the east, on July 3, a motor vehicle accident along the Allan Avenue Main Road in Port Antonio, Portland, resulted in an outage for over 5,000 customers.

Trelawny has the fewest outages caused by motor vehicle accidents, standing at 22 such outages.

“JPS is appealing to all road users to exercise caution and remain alert, as a single moment of poor judgement can cause personal harm and injury to themselves and others, as well as take down a utility pole, disrupting service to entire communities,” JPS advised in a statement.

“JPS remains committed to delivering safe, reliable electricity, but the Company cannot do it alone. JPS appeals to everyone to help prevent the next accident. Road safety and power reliability go hand in hand,” the company added.