Tractor operators using cage wheels on public road will be charged – Commander

Tractor operators using cage wheels on the Corentyne Highway, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), will be placed before the court of law for traffic violation.

This is according to Regional Police Commander, Senior Superintendent Calvin Brutus.
Several vehicle operators traversing the Corentyne Highway have repeatedly complained of the difficulty they experience while driving when mud is deposited on the carriageway from the cage wheels of tractors coming out of dams on the rice cultivation areas.
According to Brutus, it is something which has been happening for years and it has become a culture.
“Not a good one,” he added.

“The mud, when it dries, it damages vehicles and it is also a risk on the road because it becomes slippery when it rains,” the Commander noted.
One driver, in explaining the difficulty of driving with the deposits of mud on the road, said as drivers they have to be extremely cautious.
“If something run across the road, you can’t stop. The car could go anywhere when you try to stop or try to turn to save the animal.”
On April 16, 2018, one person was killed and two others injured when a car slammed into a parked truck at Number 58 Village along the Corentyne Highway. The 52-year-old station pump attendant, Soorajine Surjraj, also called “Pammy”, of Lot 13 Grant, 1805 Crabwood, died in the accident while her only child, Nesa Sukhra, 15, and her 70-year-old mother, Khemnie Surjraj, were injured as they were returning home from the CBJ International Airport after taking a relative to the airport to board a flight back to the US.
It is said that the driver lost control of the vehicle because of mud on the road.
Thick deposits of mud are left on the Highway from tractors with cage wheels coming out of dams which lead to the backlands where rice is being cultivated.
Each village in the cultivation areas has such a dam at the two ends and one also in the middle which is called the Middle Walk Dam.
The Commander said owners and operators of those tractors could first wash the mud off of the wheels before coming onto the main thoroughfare.
“There are a lot of trenches there that they can use to wash the mud off of the cage wheels before coming on to the Public Road. We will be seeking to enforce this from now onwards,” Brutus said. (Andrew Carmichael)