A resident of Charity, Essequibo Coast, is calling on the relevant authorities to implement stricter measures for owners of animals who allow them to wander along the roadways, following an accident on Saturday afternoon that could have caused her and the other occupant of her car PSS 8374 to be injured.
This newspaper when contacted by the frustrated resident (name given) learnt that she was on her way home with her mother when her car hit a pregnant sheep at around 5.45pm. According to the woman she was going at about 40 miles per hour adding that it was only because she wasn’t going any faster that her car didn’t sustain extensive damage.
At the time of the accident, the driver said she was driving along the road at Plantation Phillips when a flock of sheep ran in front of her vehicle causing her to hit one of them. Neighbours, she said, gathered on their verandahs and at their fences to see what the matter was. She recalled how panicked she was adding that since no one came to their rescue, she held two of the sheep’s hooves while her mother held the other two and placed it on the parapet before taking the animal into a nearby rice field.
The sheep succumbed shortly after the accident.
The driver said following the accident, the rest of the flock ran into a nearby yard but when she went across to speak with the residents there, they denied being the owners of the sheep and neither they nor anyone else around could say who the animals belonged to. The flock eventually went to a second yard in the neighbouring Bounty Hall village but the person who lives there, after heading over to the rice field where the dead animal lay, also denied it was theirs.
At this point, the driver said she drove to the Charity Police Station where she asked that they assist her in finding the owners but the police said there was nothing they could do. The woman said that she was upset not only because they could not help her but for the police officers to get to the scene of the accident, she had to transport them as they had no vehicles.
She has since given up hope of finding the owners and having them compensate her for the damage as no one is willing to help her. Though it seems nothing major, the damage done to the bumper of her car and number plate is estimated to cost $100,000 to repair, money which she must find on her own.
“I am paying all my insurances, revenue, fitness, just to use the road and the road is not up-to-date for drivers. Every time you think about coming to drive on the road, you have to have at least a hundred thousand dollars just in case something happens. The police is looking to you as a driver to make an offence but when you are being taken advantage of on the road, nobody is there to support. My number plate is a cardboard right now. [Yesterday] the police stop me and ask why my number plate was a cardboard, they always ready for you”, the infuriated woman said.
Furthermore she noted that there are no stray catchers for the animals in Region Two and she believes that if they did have the stray catchers, owners would be more responsible for their animals. Animals too, she stressed, should have their necessary brands or collars. She also complained of the Charity Police Station not having a pound where stray animals can be left and later picked by their owners providing they pay the necessary fines. The Essequibo Coast Public Road, the driver said, is barely wide enough to allow for two drivers to pass each other on the roadway let alone to include a farmer driving his tractor and the many animals that can be found on the road daily.
