By Adrian Frater, News EditorWESTERN BUREAU:
MAYOR OF Lucea, Lester Crooks, and his Montego Bay counterpart, Noel Donaldson, have joined forces in a bold bid to rid the new highway which connects both towns, of the stray animals.
The strays have been the cause of several traffic accidents along the highway.
Under the plan, devised by the Hanover Parish Council in the wake of a spate of recent accidents on the highway, including two fatal ones over the past three months, stray animals will be captured and trucked to Montego Bay, where they will be impounded at the St. James Parish Council pound at Montpelier.
"The project is going quite well at this time," said Lucea's Mayor, Councillor Crooks, of the exercise, which has seen a wholesale effort to remove stray cattle, horses, donkeys and goats from the highway.
"We are indeed happy that we have gotten an assurance of Mayor Donaldson that he will continue to get his co-operation in addressing the matter," he said
STUN GUNS
While expressing satisfaction with the programme, Mayor Crooks nonetheless spoke of the difficulty of catching the animals, which he said have become so accustomed to roaming free that when they are approached by humans, they run off.
He said he was proposing the use of stun guns to disable the animals so as to facilitate easy capture.
According to Mayor Crooks, he is anticipating that as soon as the project gets under way, there will be a significant reduction in the number of road accidents caused by the animals, especially the black cows that makes night driving a nightmare in areas such as Point, which has very few street lights.
"I think this move is long overdue and the two Mayors should be commended," said mini-bus driver Brian Smith, who frequently uses the highway.
"Last year a pastor and then a doctor lost their lives after crashing into stray cows. Only a few weeks ago, a businessman died in a similar acciden," he said.
While some sections of the highway have protective guard-rails, areas such as Point and Johnson Town have no such barriers between the highway and the open pastures, where the animals graze.
