-at Lama Avenue, Bel Air Park
A truck yesterday morning rolled forward and slammed into an electrical pole on Lama Avenue and Vlissengen Road knocking power from the area and causing the pole to lean precariously, being held in place only by the power lines attached to it. The accident occurred around 09:45 hours while the driver of the truck tried to switch off the engine after parking the vehicle. The truck was located on the premises of Low’s Service Station and had just been washed at the wash bay facilities there. An employee of the service station, who attended to the washing of the vehicle, then attempted to park it so as to make room for the other vehicles to be washed.
But when he tried to immobilise the vehicle, it engaged and rolled forward, its front wheels riding over the low concrete barrier and snapping the base of the pole. There were also two loud explosive sounds, presumably from nearby transformers.
The driver attached to the Guyana Defence Force Cooperative Credit Union, Cyrus Reynolds had just returned to the gas station to pick up the truck that he had left there some time ago, when he witnessed the incident. He explained to the Guyana Chronicle that someone who is unfamiliar with the way the truck operates will have a difficulty parking the vehicle.
Reynolds said that the vehicle, a Bedford four-wheel drive ‘bush truck’, cannot be immobilised unless the driver first disengage the clutch and put the vehicle in gear before switching off the ignition, otherwise the engine will keep running. He said that the person who attempted to park the truck, an employee of the service station, was clearly unfamiliar with the process necessary to perform the operation, and because of this the incident occurred.
Employees of the service station placed safety cones on the road to alert drivers and divert them through the service station for access from Lama Avenue to Vlissengen Road.
The Guyana Power and Light had not arrived on the scene to fix the broken pole until at least four hours after. Numerous attempts by this newspaper to get a response from the power company on the situation proved futile.