No sidewalk danger …Parents fearful for children who will have to compete with motorists to travel along under-construction roadways
Published:Sunday | September 1, 2019 | 12:00 AM
Early Friday morning, Karen Henderson set out from her Mandela Terrace community with her three-year-old daughter, Anjelique Simpson, for the toddler’s orientation at an infant school.
Turning off Waltham Park Road, she had to travel along a section of the underconstruction Hagley Park Road to reach the school.
For mother and child, that was a terrifying experience.
“No, sah! This a drama! A this me haffi go through every day fi carry her to school? It way too dangerous,” Henderson lamented to The Sunday Gleaner.
“There is no sidewalk anywhere. Me haffi a walk inna the road and a dodge traffic and then a jump over wall wid me pickney just fi carry her to school. She all start bawl cause a idiot driver nearly lick we. By the time she reach school, har shoes dirty and she well stress out. Me want know how long we a go have to deal with this because this just a put my life and me pickney life in danger.”
Henderson’s sentiments echoed those of several pedestrians across the Corporate Area who are forced to compete with motorists for space to travel along the roadways now under construction as sidewalks along several stretches are noticeably absent.
As the new school year officially starts this week, even more students will face this challenge.
With even more delays for the completion of Hagley Park Road, Three Miles (Portia Simpson Miller Square), Constant Spring Road, Barbican Road, and Camp Road, the relevant authorities are unable to give a definitive timeline for the conclusion of the Legacy Project.
And many are fed up with the repeated missed deadlines that are not only causing a commuting nightmare, but are also hazardous and life threatening.
AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
One such glaring hazard is the absence of a sidewalk on a section of Constant Spring Road in front of the Merl Grove High School, where a bus stop is also located.
This has some parents jittery and fearful for the lives of their children.
Janet Mills, the mother of a sixth-former at Merl Grove, was livid when a workman assured her last week that the sidewalk would be ready before the start of school tomorrow.
“That have nothing to do with me. Unu nah fix nutten. My daughter has to use the bus stop, and the way how these taxi and bus man drive, me fretting for her life,” Mills angrily responded.
Parent Marie Edwards was more reserved but just as concerned about her daughter, who is entering third form.
“I hope they fix it because if there is no sidewalk, that is a danger to the lives of the children,” the soft-spoken woman said.
Heather drives a taxi along the Constant Spring Road to Half-Way Tree route and although she drops off her daughter at school in the mornings, her child sometimes takes the bus back home.
“I am worried not just for my child, but for all the children. We need sidewalks for the children,” Heather said.
In a terse response to the concerns, Communications Manager for the National Works Agency Stephen Shaw told The Sunday Gleaner that “sidewalks are going to be put in where there are none as soon as possible”.
As it relates to the situation in the vicinity of Merl Grove, he gave the assurance that it would be remedied before the start of school.
Shaw said at the very least, a temporary solution would be found.
“Everything is not yet in place, but that can and will be attended to. A temporary soft shoulder can be put there until things are fully sorted out,” he stated.