THE TRAFFIC
Dear Sir:
Driving up towards the hill from Sandy Ground at about 6:00 pm on Monday 28th Sept., my friend and I realized traffic was moving very slowly. There were four cyclists going up the hill. Two of these persons were riding side by side, taking up most of the road. We crawled along, thinking the cyclists were the problem. (These cyclists were wrong, of course, as I believe riding two abreast is not legal – or safe). Vehicles whizzed past going up as others came down the hill, seemingly dodging one another. As we neared the top of the hill, we came upon a huge transport truck, heavily loaded with bags of cement, moving at a snail’s pace. Luckily, we found an open space and were able to get off the road. As the truck finally ground to a halt, at the top of the hill, we managed to pass – on the wrong side of the road – and were just in time to see men unhooking tow ropes from the truck and from another machine now parked in front of it! Apparently, the truck was so overloaded it had to be towed or helped along by a bulldozer or whatever those machines are called.
Overloading trucks is extremely dangerous and a huge threat to public safety! If that truck had stalled, or if a gear had failed, the whole contraption would have plunged backwards down the hill taking everything with it – cars, cyclists, pedestrians, as well the machine helping to move it up the hill – nothing could have stopped it! All this raises some questions: Who is responsible for overloading transport trucks in this manner? Where are the ‘traffic officers’ who are supposed to protect the public? If truck owners have been granted permission to use public roads in this unsafe manner why are ‘traffic officers’ not monitoring what is going on? What about our Disaster Management Department? Surely an incident such as this would be considered a potential disaster for Anguilla? Is there any department overseeing actions like these? Anybody? The fact that another machine had to be brought in to pull the truck along means that operators were well aware the truck was unable to do the job on its own. I can only conclude that this is a regular procedure for movement of bags of cement! Why should public safety come last?
Thank you.
A Worried Citizen
