An elderly driver ended up stuck on the Mackenzie-Wismar bridge yesterday afternoon, after he avoided a collision with a speeding car.
Traffic on the bridge was held up for about half an hour before the man, who appeared to be in his late 70s, got his car, PEE 5960, dislodged from a median that separates vehicles and pedestrian traffic.
The man had ventured on to the bridge from the Mackenzie end when a speeding car coming from the Wismar end forced him to brake. “Is pull the poor man pull to avoid a collision and like he mash too hard and clear the bar,” said an eyewitness. “It’s these hundred dollar cars and dem minibus who don’t want to wait on the traffic light,” said a passenger in a trapped car.
The left wheels of the car cleared the median and landed on the pedestrian lane. Despite the driver’s noticeable dilemma, motorists in several short drop cars and buses sped pass without stopping to go to the man’s aid.
It was a Good Samaritan who parked his car and went to the aid of the elderly man that got others to help manually lifted the car to safety.
The elderly driver was traumatised and struggled to speak. “They just speeding, they coulda kill me, fah wah? Eh, fah wah? They always more hurry than anything,” the obviously shaken man said.
He was eventually guided back into his car and he was escorted to his destination by a traffic policeman who also tried to counsel the man into regaining his composure.
The incident prompted calls by residents for more police presence at the bridge, especially during peak hours.
