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Corentyne Accident…Pothole Missed? Min. Admits Works Done In July
Officials at the Ministry of Public Infrastructure are struggling to explain the presence of a pothole, which is seen as contributing to Sunday’s deadly accident between a car and a paddy-laden truck at the Number 59 Village.
The patched pothole at the Number 59 Village, Corentyne, Berbice.
Five people died. The pothole, the Ministry said, was missed when sweeping road maintenance works were carried out in Berbice during July.
A day after the accident, officials rushed to patch the pothole where the two vehicles collided. There was plenty of finger-pointing as to whether the Region Six Democratic Council (RDC) was responsible for fixing the pothole.
The ministry, in an interview with Kaieteur News, accepted responsibility for the maintenance of the Corentyne Public Road and said works in July covered the stretch between New Amsterdam and Moleson Creek in July.
The ministry’s public relations officer, Desilon Daniels, cautioned against blaming the pothole for the accident, although eyewitnesses claimed that the driver of the car lost control after hitting the pothole and then veered into the path of the oncoming truck.
“We would have actually done some maintenance works on the Corentyne Public Road and this would have including patching work. We would have also done some overlaying of asphalt in selected areas,” Daniels told Kaieteur News.
The area mention by Daniels would have included the stretch of road at Number 59 Village.
“I am not sure they would have covered that specific pothole. It’s hard to really ask an engineer if you covered this exact precise pothole. I couldn’t really say if they would have done work on that specific pothole, but we did execute works on that entire stretch in July and do have plans to continue doing work in November,” Daniels further added.
She flatly denied that the works carried out by the Ministry’s Special Projects Unit, were substandard and could have resulted in the pothole re-opening.
“I think what people should always consider is that there are conditions that the road will go through. The Corentyne Road would be a road that will obviously see a lot of traffic and we do have to take into consideration things like overweight vehicles. I am not sure if the ministry would have addressed that specific pothole when we did our maintenance work in July, but if that is the case we cannot also say if it broke subsequent to July,” Daniels stated.
She stated that during the rehabilitation of roadways there are quality assurance steps in place that include clerks of work who would inspect projects. The public relations officer said an internal probe in this case wouldn’t be warranted.
This is only done in cases where there are major issues such as large portions of a repaired road falling apart.
Sunday’s accident claimed the life of Sabita Manglani, 43, an immigration consultant; her two children, Emanuel Manglani, 18, and Ethan Ramjeet, five, all of Lot 4 Bel Air, Greater Georgetown; her boyfriend, Dhanpaul Kishandayal, 39, of New York and her secretary, Reshma Seeram, 28, of Leonora, West Coast Demerara.
The truck driver, 30-year-old Doodram Singh of Number 49 Village, Corentyne, was hospitalized in a critical condition.
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