- Michael Sloley/Freelance Photographer
Traffic proceeds cautiously along the Lakes Pen Road as motorists manoeuvre their way past two trucks parked in the same spot for a year now.
Teino Evans, Staff Reporter
THE POLICE have their hands full coping with the number of fatal accidents taking place across the country, 18 of which occurred between the beginning of last month and last Friday.
St. Catherine, accounting for five of those fatal accidents, continues to be among the worst parishes with places like the Old Harbour bypass featuring in several of the collisions to have occurred in recent times.
Residents in communities in close proximity to what they describe as "race tracks" are now expressing fear for their lives. Those living in Lakes Pen near Spanish Town, for example, say they are gripped by fear of motorists speeding recklessly along Lakes Pen Road.
According to these residents and vendors in the area, there have been a number of accidents along the Lakes Pen Road since its resurfacing last year.
Since then, there has been an increase in the number of motorists who use the route in an effort to cut out peak-hour traffic along the Mandela Highway. The short-cut, residents say, allows motorists to bypass the section of traffic flowing from Jose Marti High School and Central Village.
DIFFERING TALES
The Spanish Town police said there had been only one reported case of an accident occurring along the Lakes Pen Road within the last two weeks.
According to District Constable N. Williams, the accident occurred on Thursday, July 31, when it was reported that a Coaster passenger bus crashed into a parked truck, injuring five passengers.
Police statistics, however, do not confirm what residents and vendors in Lakes Pen say as many have not been officially reported.
A Sunday Gleaner team visited the area on Tuesday and was informed that an accident involving a red pick-up van had occurred earlier that morning, and many believe that similar accidents are caused by the reckless driving of motorists who speed along the thoroughfare.
Pauline Crooks, an elderly woman who sells along the Lakes Pen Road just opposite her home, told of her experience last year when a speeding motorist lost control of the vehicle he was driving, ran off the main road and ended up perched on the side of her house.
The vehicle, she said, had crashed through her fence, damaging a section of her house.
The driver of the vehicle, however, begged her not to get the police involved, and promised to give her "a smalls" to compensate for the damage. Ms. Crooks said she agreed to this, but has not seen the man since.
RISKY BUSINESS
As Ms. Crooks sat on her little stool, overseeing her stall of fruits, biscuits and bottled-drinks, she calls out to her two grandchildren, "hold him hand and run cross," as they dared to cross the road to get to their home on the other side.
"It's risky business," Ms. Crooks says even of her occupation, selling on the street, as there is no real safe-haven along that road. Behind her stall, is a barbed wire fence that separates her from a gully-like banking. If a car were to lose control and come crashing her way, she would be pinned.
"Many times if you are not careful, yuh dead," said a young man who was standing next to the stall.
During The Sunday Gleaner's interview with another vendor along the Lakes Pen Road, a speeding vehicle almost crashed into the news car that was parked along the side of the road.
Motorists encounter at least two blind spots when travelling in opposite directions on the long winding stretch of road, and the corners can be deadly if not approached with caution.
According to another resident, Dorothy Williams, there were other factors contributing to some of the accidents occurring along the Lakes Pen Road.
Pointing to two trucks, parked along the roadside, just 10 metres from her gate, she explained how it was impossible for oncoming traffic to have a clear vision of vehicles travelling in the opposite direction.
The two trucks, she said, had been parked in the same spot for more than a year now and allegedly weren't being used by the owner.
"If I had a tractor, mi use it push dem off inna di gully," she said.
Residents say they will only have to hope that they are not killed by a careless motorist while sitting on their gate columns or front porches. They said many times they have had to put tyres in the road or beckon to motorists to slow down. But oftentimes they are greeted with "colourful" words.
POLICE 'ON TOP OF THINGS'
According to Sergeant Stanley Gardner of the traffic division at the Spanish Town Police Station, no speed traps have been set up along the Lakes Pen Road because they they have had little reports of accidents occurring along that stretch of road due to speeding.
However, "we have done a lot of spot checks around there," as motorists tend to commit other offences such as incorrect overtaking, careless driving, overcrowded vehicles and the operation of 'robot taxis'," he said.
Sergeant Gardner, also told The Sunday Gleaner that the police were on top of things, where these other offences were concerned.
Reports from the Constabulary Communication Network show a total of 183 traffic accidents occurring since the start of the year, resulting in 206 deaths.
Last Wednesday night three people were killed and three others injured in a four-vehicle collision on the Old Harbour bypass near the Clarendon/St. Catherine border.
The police also reported that another motor vehicle accident had occurred on the bypass earlier that morning.
