TRAFFIC MISERY CONTINUES THOUGH TRUCK HAS BEEN MOVED?
THE truck that overturned at Priory, setting off hours of long traffic lines, is gone. However, the near gridlock on the North Coast Highway is continuing.
The North Coast Times reported Friday morning at 10:30 that the truck had been moved and traffic was flowing.
But complaints from motorists said the lines were almost as bad as Thursday’s.
(Midday traffic going east, at Plantation. Traffic backed up for miles.)
Our correspondent went on the road, and we can report that the traffic lines stretch back miles in either direction from Priory. Up to early afternoon, Friday, April 25, eastbound traffic was backed up beyond Paradisio and toward the crossing at Llandovery, and westbound (from Montego Bay) traffic was backed up from Drax Hall through to Priory.
People are trying to find out what’s responsible but there is no immediate answer to the traffic crunch. At the same time, there are many questions about Thursday’s traffic snarl.
The roadway was cleared about 2 a.m. Friday, March 25, nearly 24 hours after a truck overturned, smashing part of a shop near Priory, just west of St Ann’s Bay.
What caused the crash is also unclear, but reports are that the 2006 International Truck, Registration CM 2335, laden with bulk cement, was headed west, toward Montego Bay. The left front wheels slipped into a soft section of the road, left unpaved for months, after a pipe-laying job. The truck tipped over, its underbelly turned outward to the roadway, having smashed into a shop.
(Part of what’s left of the shop)
The road is narrower here anyway, and that, plus the indiscipline of drivers, led to gridlock. People spent up to three hours in traffic going three or four miles, including getting past the crash spot.
Reports to the North Coast Times indicated that the assessment of the police and mechanics in the area suggested that the International truck needed massive support to set it upright and move it. That support in the end had to come from Kingston.
So motorists suffered all day Thursday, into the night.
Those inconvenienced and suffering financial loss included local taxi and bus operators, tourists, and passengers going to the Donald Sangster Airport, Montego Bay. There were countless stories of people missing their flights, tourists coming from Trelawny to Dunn’s River and other attractions getting caught up in the blockage.
YOU CAN ALWAYS REACH THE NORTH COAST TIMES @ [email protected]
WATCH (early morning video from a reader)
