Days after one man was killed during an accident at the end of the Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway in Debe, officials from the Traffic Management Branch of the Ministry of Works and Transport, began to erect additional safety measures at the site.
• Today, during the pouring rain, our camera crew spotted workmen placing several large barrels, filled with dirt, at the front of the concrete barriers, which formed part of a Ghandi Village roundabout.
• The barrels, one worker told us, would be doubled and placed in front of the concrete barriers as a measure to minimise fatalities. Reflectors, he said, will be placed on the barrels. Reflectors had also been placed on the concrete barriers.
• The new safety measure, the worker added, will be focused on the area of the roundabout where the highway traffic comes to an end.
On Saturday 30th July, 2022.
• Four men, one of them in serious condition at the hospital, were injured after the Suzuki car they were in crashed into the concrete barriers at the end of the highway during the early hours.
Early on Sunday 31st July, 2022:
38-year-old Vinod Maraj of olive drive, Cunupia, was killed after the Honda City motor car, reg. no. PEA 9039, he was driving crashed into the concrete barriers at the end of the highway.
On April 30th 2022 Yudesh Sooklal from Freeport suffered a fiery death after his vehicle burst into flames when it crashed into the concrete barriers.
On Feb 14th 2021: 41-year-old Hilson Pierre, of Symond Valley Road, St. Ann’s was killed after his white Nissan Tiida crashed into the concrete barriers at the end of the Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway in Debe.
There have been multiple calls for better signage and safety measures to be implemented on that segment of the highway leading to the roundabout which has been labelled as a “death stretch” following multiple fatal accidents in the area.
There have also been calls for the removal of the concrete barriers which form a roundabout at the incomplete segment of the highway.
• Prior to the concrete barriers being installed, there were plastic barriers which were all destroyed following multiple car accidents involving vehicles approaching the end of the highway.
• But since the installation of the concrete barriers, fatalities began to occur in the area.
• Motorists and residents blame the concrete barriers for the fatal crashes and lack of proper signage in the area. They said if the concrete barriers were not there, then the drivers who died may have been alive if their vehicles had crashed into the bushes off the highway.
