Traffic on the Demerara Harbour Bridge was yesterday afternoon stalled for an hour and a half after a truck, GHH 2756, canted over the edge of the east- west thoroughfare at the retractor span.
General Manager of the Demerara Harbour Bridge Rawlston Adams told reporters that the truck was heading in a westerly direction on the bridge, when its front and back wheels on the left hand side slipped over the edge.
The driver exited the truck and fled the scene immediately and the owner was up to press time assisting the police with investigations.
Upon investigation, he said, the situation demanded that they shut the entire bridge down because of the vibrations and the tide. He said they were able to call John Fernandes Limited for some assistance which was immediately rendered. “They sent a crane and with the assistance of the police, they were able to lift the truck back on to the bridge,” Adams said.
Adams also said that they are assessing the damage. While a tertiary look determined that there is no major damage, the cable tray he said might be damaged as well as a power cable that takes power to the retractor span. He also added that John Fernandes Ltd had informed that there is a cost for the rental of the crane. He said all costs will be transferred to the owner of the truck.
When asked about safety on the bridge, Adams said inspection of the truck revealed that it didn’t have much power or brakes. He said it was suspected that the truck itself was defective. “There was no indication that [there was] something wrong with the bridge to have caused this,” he added.
No one was injured and traffic resumed shortly after the rush hour started.
For a while, there was a pile up of commuters using the speedboats at the ferry stelling to get across, which resulted in some amount of pushing and shoving and confusion. Later in the afternoon, normalcy returned after the bridge reopened to vehicular traffic.
