‘This is not safe at all’
Grants Pen residents bemoan struggles since opening of highway bypass
Published:Tuesday | March 29, 2022 | 12:08 AMShanna Monteith/Gleaner Writer
After stumbling upon a crocodile and having to flee from a raging pit bull just days after having now been forced to walk a mile to access public transportation with the partial opening of a section of the under-construction highway, residents of Grants Pen in St Thomas are contending that this is the start of a nightmare they foresaw.
The resident had long campaigned against the planned realignment of the main road as the Southern Coastal Highway Improvement Project bypassed their area, a reality they said would cause the death of their community.
According to the National Works Agency (NWA), the current diversion is necessary to facilitate the commencement of works to create an embankment for the southern lanes on the outskirts of Grants Pen.
While other residents of the parish are celebrating getting a feel of the new roadway, Grants Pen is restive, saying they have already fallen victim to the concerns which they have been raising prior to the changes.
“This morning, while we were walking our children up to the foot of the highway, where they have to wait on bus to go to school, a pit bull attacked us,” Dayna Johnson told The Gleaner last week. “Is like it was hiding in the mountain or something and rush we when we a pass.”
The mother of two said that men from the community rushed to their aid after an alarm was raised.
“We did have to lift up the kids and run. If the guys never come stone it, then it would have bite we up. What if it was the pickney dem alone a walk?” she asked.
RED FLAGS
As if that were not enough, Johnson said that a crocodile was also spotted along the road leading to the eastern entrance of the highway.
“The kids could be walking and step on its tail and it flare up and bite them up. This is not safe at all. It is too far for us to walk,” she said of the new one-mile trek as taxis no longer frequent the community. “By the time dem reach the highway, dem sweat up and dirty. It cannot work.”
Apart from refusing to drive through their community, some of the taxi operators are also reportedly no longer willing to accept Grants Pen residents as passengers.
These, according to Annette Rennie, are too many red flags to ignore.
“The other day a busman leave a little girl coming from primary school a road. Is when her usual time past her father start to worry and go look for her. Night she reach home!” complained Rennie. They don’t want to carry us or the children. We are being left stranded.”
Rennie, who has five grandchildren enrolled in schools, is pleading for the authorities to address their plight.
“How can you have a 10-year-old or even younger and let them off the bus and tell them they have to walk almost a mile to go home? Anything can happen to them because they are small. I feel so bad I can be here waiting for them to come and hear that dog maul them down and kill them or crocodile take them away and to how time serious man can abduct them. We need help,” she said.
A team from the St Thomas Police Division visited the community last Wednesday to record the complaints of the citizens and to reassure them that they would do all within their power to address their concerns.
However, the residents are calling on their member of parliament, James Robertson, to make the necessary representation and for the NWA to consider providing an alternative to the current situation.