Hanover police turn focus on traffic infractions for 2026

Western Bureau:

Superintendent Andrew Nish, the police commander for Hanover, says that for this year, his team would be paying greater attention to traffic management with a view to preventing the increasing number of traffic accidents, which has emerged as a major concern in the parish.

Delivering his report at the monthly meeting of the Hanover Municipal Corporation (HMC) last Thursday, Nish was speaking against the background of the parish’s first fatal road accident on Watson Taylor Drive in Lucea on February 12.

“My report this morning starts, sadly, with a traffic collision along Watson Taylor Drive between a bus and a pedal cyclist, and that is the first road fatality that we have in Hanover since the start of this year,” he said. “We have decided that we are going to tackle the streets robustly in order to prevent some of these events that will actually lead to fatalities.”

Nish, who sees rigorous enforcement as key to reducing the carnage, said the fatal accident is three fewer than the four that occurred over the similar period for 2025. Last year, the Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) was vocal in calling for motorists to proceed with care.

The areas renowned for accidents are the Orange Bay main road, Watson Taylor Drive, the Point roadway in the vicinity of the Grand Palladium Hotel, and the Round Hill hotel roadway approaching Hopewell.

As it relates to the crime situation in Hanover, Nish noted that while 2025 saw a pleasing decrease in major crimes, he was further pleased to report that there had been a further marginal decrease of 15 per cent since the start of 2026 when compared with a similar period last year.

In fact, in comparison to former years when gang-related murders dominated the statistics, this year, the four murders committed were all because of interpersonal events. He noted that the former high crimes areas were now under firm control.

“Despite our best efforts, sometimes these interpersonal conflicts end up in these incidents of murder. These domestic issues and interpersonal conflicts are driving our crime numbers in the wrong direction,” he said.

“We are intensifying our operational activities around the interpersonal incidents and have dominated the spaces by embarking on a lot of community policing.”

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