Overpass is needed in Agricola now!

Jun 03, 2019 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
There is no overpass at the section of the Agricola Public Road where a tragic accident occurred last Saturday. An overpass is needed as the density of a population requires one. The difficulty in installation of an overpass there is related to private property along the highway.
One more death is too much. I sympathise with the family of the deceased. To the driver of the lorry, I feel your ache and pain of being put in a no way out situation, a choice to avoid collision or contact with pedestrians, yet traversing that very road peril awaits.
The government can now compulsory acquire land to install this needed overpass. I believe cost may have won the debate at that specific location. If not an overpass, there needs to be electronic pedestrian activated stop lights at crossings where there is no overpass. It cannot be business as usual as pedestrians continue to thrust into flowing traffic. While electronic control methods can work and may be a cheaper fix; an overpass is safer.
Now we must calculate the cost of Saturday’s mishap. It’s in the billions of lost property, wages, life, production, environmental and health care.
The other glaring tragedy is being trapped on the highway with no alternate routes to get out of the city, no routes through adjoining villages, no service routes. If, heaven forbid, there is a natural disaster, leaving this city is going to be hellish.
I urge those responsible for disaster preparedness to quit studying and start acting.
In this modern world of technology, no one should lose his or her life on the road like that. The mix of commercial traffic, dense daily commute and pedestrian movement east and west did result in this tragedy! Can we fix this? This child’s demise demands it. Its beckons leadership and vision!
As regards to vigilante behaviour of some residents, I urge the police to be swift in investigating the actions that led to destruction of property and evidence at the scene of the accident. I urge those who have available video evidence to corroborate eyewitnesses’ account of the accident to please provide the investigating authority the recordings.
As the hours and days wane, we may fall back to our routine, lest we forget the carnage on the roads that jolts us to improve accessibility that results in reducing or eliminating deaths on our roads.
Louis Nestor

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