An urgent call has been made for the installation of fencing on the bridge located on the Linstead section of the North-South Highway, following a rise in incidents where individuals throw stones at passing vehicles. These nefarious acts, often with the intent of robbing motorists who stop to investigate, have prompted concerns for public safety. Recent reports indicate multiple vehicles have been targeted, with one victim recounting the traumatic experience of a rock hitting their car's headlights.

Toll Road stoning

Police moving to nab culprits pelting vehicles on North-South Highway

Jamaica Gleaner/30 Nov 2023/Sashana Small/Staff Reporter 

THERE IS an urgent need for fencing to be erected on the bridge located on the Linstead leg of the North South Highway following an increase in incidents of nefarious persons using that vantage point to throw stones at vehicles passing, often with the intention of robbing motorists if they stop to investigate.

Last Friday, *Andre and other members of his family were travelling to Ochi Rios for a funeral when they had the almost deadly experience.

“Upon reaching the Linstead vicinity, there is an overhead bridge, close by the exit for the Linstead toll, and that’s where the person threw the rock from, above the overhead bridge, and it hit the car. Luckily it wasn’t the windscreen. It was the headlights that it hit,” he said in a Gleaner interview.

He stated that they did not stop the vehicle, and as they reached the next toll booth further along the highway, they noticed that other vehicles that were travelling behind them also had been stoned.

Although he counts himself lucky, he lamented the traumatic experience, which, he said, could be minimised with fencing on the bridge and proper lighting in the vicinity.

“To avoid this occurring with the one (highway) from Spanish Town to May Pen, what they did, they fenced the bridge so that persons can’t walk on and look down on the toll. What they do they put some high mesh fence so that persons can’t really go there and throw stuff. That is not so on this toll,” he said.

AREA NOT LIT

“You’re supposed to have proper lighting because there is no light out there, eno. The vicinity, the spot where they are doing it, there is no street light there. It is so dark,” he added.

Head of the Public Safety and Traffic Enforcement Branch (PSTEB) of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Gary McKenzie, told The Gleaner that five reports of such incidents on that leg of the highway have been made recently.

But he noted that no arrests had been made so far.

However, he said the police have increased its patrol on the highway to reassure motorists and discourage other incidents.

“We want to catch some of these people without them damaging anymore vehicles or eventually hurting other persons. We believe that this kind of action is very selfish. It is a serious crime to want to injure people because when you throw stone from that height, it can actually kill someone, so we take it very seriously,” said.

PERPETRATORS FROM COMMUNITY

McKenzie also disclosed that the culprits were from nearby communities.

“When we have these situations, it is not people from outside communities who are doing these things. It is people from surrounding communities, and it is very bad that this is happening, and so our community police have started to work around it. We are trying to locate persons who may have done it, and we may have altered our highway patrol to spend time in that area,” he said.

Senior Superintendent Howard Chambers, commanding cfficer for the St Catherine North Division, told The Gleaner that the police have identified suspects.

“We have information on some possible perpetrators, so we are pursuing that also. We have a few persons that we are searching for,” he said.

McKenzie, in the meantime, is reiterating calls for the bridge to be fenced as he believes that this will prevent those incidents.

“This particular thing was one on the other side of the highway, and we found that it worked well, and so we have spoken to the highway authorities, and we expect that they will respond positively to it,” he said.

*Name changed on request

 

For feedback: contact the Editorial Department at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com.