BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – PICTURE – if you will – that you have had a difficult day at work and as the four o’clock hour strikes, you embark your vehicle and head along the eastern corridor of the island bound for your Lodge Village home.
The journey normally takes approximately 20 minutes, but today – due to circumstances far beyond your control – it will take about three hours. Just before you approach ‘4Mile’ in Keys, you remove your foot from the accelerator and apply pressure to the brake so as to not crash into the vehicle that is at the back of a queue of vehicles which stretches far beyond the eyes can see.
Because news travels quickly, you discover that an incident had transpired which required mandatory temporary closure of the Island’s Main Road in Cayon and that impediment to the flow of traffic will not be removed until hours later.
Far from your customary 4:20 p.m. arrival at home, you are aware of the fact that the comfort of your abode would not be embraced until after dusk.
By this time, the gears of your mind are in full throttle and it produces a number of questions... “Could this have been avoided? What if there were an emergency and the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) needed to get into that area while there was a bottleneck? How would it have gained access to the persons needing medical attention? Could such bottleneck result in the loss of life? Again, could a scenario such as this be avoided?”
Cause of Traffic Congestion
Green Valley festivities come but once a year when the Cayon and surrounding communities enjoy the merriment of the many activities they bring, including J’Ouvert, the Queen Show and Band Clash.
However, a bitter taste is often left in the mouths of patrons and other road users of the Cayon portion of the Island’s Main Road whenever these activities occur, because of the influx of vehicular traffic into that village which causes certain roads to be restricted or prohibited.
This significantly increases the length of time one would take to travel from one point to another, especially if the journey takes one through Cayon.
On a more contemplative note however, a young man, Karando ‘Kasper’ Otto, was gunned down in cold blood on the evening of Sunday (Aug. 14) in the vicinity of Gumbs Used Parts and Tire Shop in Cayon, which resulted in miles-long vehicle bottleneck that stretched in both directions.
Two other individuals were injured during that incident, but, thankfully, they were speedily transported to the Joseph. N. France General Hospital by the EMS.
A Bypass Road for Cayon…splendid idea
An unpaved, rugged trail exists in Cayon which begins in Spooners Village and ends at Upper Cayon.
According to ‘Cayonites’, this trail should be paved and transformed into a bypass road which could be used by motorists as a alternative route in the event of traffic congestion in Cayon.
“I think it should be a bypass road for the Cayon area because I have seen in many circumstances like when there is Green Valley and when the road is blocked, persons would have to use this road from time to time; so I think it should be developed. The Sunday evening when the young man was shot, it took me about a half an hour to get to my house and I was just a quarter mile away. I was coming from town. That was because the traffic was blocked up because of the incident which took place in Central Cayon.
“During Green Valley, you find that happening and if there is any major incident on the Island Main Road, there is a big block up. So, once the road is developed, I think it will help to ease congestion,” one Spooners’ resident who opted to remain anonymous told SKNVibes.
Steve ‘Coby’ Archibald, another Cayon resident, told this publication that it is better to err on the side of caution rather than wait until something devastating transpires because the flow of vehicular traffic is impeded.
Upper Cayon resident Yvette ‘Barber’ Phillip, who indicated that she has been lobbying years for the rugged terrain to be paved and converted into the Cayon Bypass Road, explained that she had a frightening experience one evening when the river (which is on one side of her home) and the Upper Cayon end of the potential bypass road (which is on the other side) were both impassible. She said the situation was exacerbated by the torrential showers.
“I could remember a night when we were coming home…the river came down and when we arrived there we couldn’t pass. We took the Spooners route and the bus couldn’t pass through there either because the road was badly damaged. We had to go back around and park the bus on the other side of the river and wait until it stopped flowing. If we were at home and there was an emergency and the ambulance had to pass, it would have not been able to do so. We are tired, tired. Years upon years we have been speaking about it because it is a good idea.
“The other night when they had the incident, vehicles had to drive through here, both from country side and from town side. So I am pleading with them to fix the road through Spooners.”
Hamilton agrees
Parliamentary Representative for the Cayon area, Eugene Hamilton weighed in on the issue and indicated that there is urgent need for the road to be converted into a bypass thoroughfare for Cayon.
“It has been promised by the previous representative during most of his 15 or so years in office. Year after year he would promise that that road would be paved so as to allow bypass traffic. It is something that is desirous, in that it would assist in ensuring that traffic does not get congested all the way back to Basseterre or way down in the country side if there is some form of impediment to traffic through Cayon. I think it will serve a great purpose.
“If that is not the place most likely for bypass-type traffic, then bypass road is something that should be considered by government to bypass major villages where there is only one-way traffic through. But in the case of Cayon, a bypass road should be considered to satisfy occasions like these.”
