– no one wants to stop

THE number of vehicular accidents occurring at the corner of Middle Road, La Penitence, and Hunter Street has been too many to count recently with one common complaint by residents: ‘No one wants to stop at the intersection.’

Almost every week sees one accident or more at this location, and recently there has even been two in one day. The area can be quite dark at nights with hardly any street lights in the vicinity. The latest accident occurred on Saturday around 15:00 hours. when PZZ 6950, proceeding west along Middle Road, failed to stop at Hunter Street, crashing into minibus BXX 371, which was heading south along the right of way on Hunter Street.

Several minibuses along route 47 have been cited for their recklessness along the roadways. Saturday’s accident, though, was blamed on the car, which was allegedly attempting to jump the main road without stopping. The minibus, driven by Sherwin Mayers, was carrying 12 passengers at the time; the car was being driven by a woman. It is not clear how many persons were inside the car, but onlookers at the scene reported that they saw a young child bleeding from her face.

Mayers told Guyana Chronicle that he was glad to be alive. “I thank God because it could’ve been worse,” he expressed. He’s been working this route for more than 20 years now and said he’d never been in an accident of this nature.

A resident, who lives on the corner and carries on a business there, said accidents on this corner have been so many over the years that he’s simply lost count.

“Everybody fails to stop here; everybody. I don’t know what it is at all.” The man said his friend was moments before standing where the vehicles crashed and only left to go across the road for a cigarette. If the gutter at the end of the road wasn’t there, the vehicles would have invaded his premises.

“The police always say it’s the ministry responsible for here, but you gotta do something too. They waiting for about 10 people die at this corner here before they take action,” the man remarked. A police officer on a motorbike arrived moments after the crash.