Dear Editor,
There’s a saying: “nothing happens nothing said,” but this is far from the story I’m about to talk about. “Driver, stop by the overhead tank”; “Telecoms junction please”; “Just before the Seventh Day Church”; “By Pine Street Nursery,” can be heard, while many continue to say “Big Tree.” Editor, all these names the commuters shout out to drivers refer to one and the same stopping point; this is the area along Sir David Rose Avenue, between the crossover from First Street Rainbow City and just before the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Now this is the area in Linden which I consider to be critical when it comes to traffic, for apart from the dreadful accidents over the years on the Linden Highway, our community has had a low record of road accidents ‒ we need to keep it that way ‒ except for the particular area mentioned above, that has over the years been accident prone with some fatalities. I’m suggesting that the Linden Police Traffic Department pay more attention to this area, putting some things in place to make it much safer. There are no road signs around except the zebra crossing. The Pine Street Nursery School situated in the Industrial Area just some 40 yards from this main road is reason enough. All types of vehicles fly past this spot at breakneck speed, totally oblivious to the pedestrian crossing. Worse still, they see people, schoolchildren, standing waiting to cross and pay them no mind.
Thus there is need to have two bold signs erected high indicating firstly that there’s a school nearby and the second one reading “Slow Pedestrian Crossing.” There should also be a speed limit sign and two humps to take care of the road hogs. And I’m saying, as most people have, that the zebra crossing needs to be moved to a more appropriate point, so that anyone coming out from the school/Industrial Area doesn’t have to peep around to see what’s coming, and drivers can easily spot anyone standing there. The current sign is wrongly placed. Also the damaged part of the road near to it should be repaired forthwith, so that vehicles don’t have to be swerving dangerously away from it. It’s just not funny to know that the Traffic Department in this community has it so easy and still the little it needs to do is not being done. Can you imagine drivers stopping on the pedestrian crossing? And I need to state once more like a recurring decimal that the five-corner junction ‒ Sir David Rose Avenue, Harder Road, Dakoma Circle and Washer Pond Road ‒ needs to be safer and better regulated. Sometimes with the build-up and confusion that you see, you just have to pray and hope nothing terrible happens.
And isn’t it time there be a decent and orderly flow of vehicular traffic across the bridge? This is why I sometimes ponder about the people who like to talk about highlighting the wonderful things, and beseech us to avoid mentioning the bad and ugly. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be glorifying the beauty around us, but understand that if we blind our eyes to the wrongs we see happening, it does not help us and only does us more harm, so that sooner rather than later we would not have so many lovely things to boast about.
By the way I saw a quote the other day that made me say “Uh uhooo”: “It’s amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.”
Yours faithfully,
Frank Fyffe
