Calls grow for stoplight at Gutters

Reacting to last week’s story many of our readers expressed their opinion on the issue.

• Work on new Old Harbour stoplight takes shape

Francine Melvin is among the majority who believes traffic signals planted at Gutters should have been a bigger priority for the powers that be.  She wrote “is only one place need stoplight and it's at Gutters. I fail to see how the authorities are so blind to see this.”

And like Melvin, Rose Wilson feels just the same after noting how her child was hit by a car years ago but luckily survived, while three weeks ago her friend’s leg was broken after being hit by a vehicle at the busy intersection.

Responses have been mixed regarding the ongoing work at the East Street, Marlie Acres Road and Goulbourne Lane intersection.

One commentator using the moniker Bitten Suzie on Facebook says the pending stoplight on East Street “makes sense” before “adding Gutters four way is next in line, that place is awful”.

There is “too much chaos and confusion” at the East Street intersection said Nicola Sybliss-McLeod in support of the stoplights being installed.

Old Harbour News understands that a technical team is still assessing the best strategy to install stoplights at Gutters. The project it is further understood is largely being hampered by existing business establishments at the corner of Spring Village Road and Old Harbour Road, and parking along the sidewalks.

Outside of Old Harbour town centre, Gutters Square is arguably the largest commercial district and the busiest intersection in southwest St Catherine.

Despite decades-old cries from residents, the area remains without a pedestrian crossing, which at the very least should have been in placed.

From as far back as 2018 stakeholders at the government level have been discussing the signalization of intersections in the parish such as Gutters Square, Featherbed Lane/Old Harbour Road, and the St John’s Road/Spanish Town By-pass.

It came as a surprise to many to then see the Hartlands/Old Harbour Road junction signalised and now the East Street/Goulbourne Lane node pending – both areas they consider to be less busy than Gutters, a burgeoning commercial centre serving approximately 8,000 residents.

Gutters has been the scene of many accidents on a weekly basis, the majority minor in nature. But there have been a few deadly encounters, the most high profile being 12-year-old Ayesha Green, who died a day later after being hit by a vehicle while attempting to cross the busy intersection in September 2013.

In October 2020 JDF soldier Jermaine Edwards sustained multiple injuries including a broken leg after he was mowed down by a BMW motor car.