Police: Don’t blame us for horrendous traffic

Head of the Police Highway Patrol and Traffic Branch Senior Supt Basdeo Ramdhanie yesterday dismissed claims by irate members of the public that the police fell down on the job of ensuring a smoother flow of traffic on Tuesday.

Ramdhanie blamed what he identified as “macco traffic” as well as flooding and bad weather for bumper-to-bumper traffic on Tuesday. This led to people arriving late at work and appointments, and other planned activities being pushed to later times.

Ramdhanie said when it was realised early on Tuesday that people were slowing down near the Beetham Landfill site to view police activities, where the body of a man who had been shot was found, his officers made every effort to “pull the traffic,” but he said this was hampered by the weather as well as flooding in some parts of Port of Spain, Mt Lambert and Wrightson Road.

He said police were out in full force, using the maximum strength of the available manpower. “We even had motorcycle officers working as late as 8 pm on Tuesday along the Beetham Highway, Wrightson Road and Western Main Road, St James.”

He said apart from the large amount of traffic, people opted to use alternative routes to get away from flooding and this resulted in the massive backlog of traffic which could not be helped because of the number of vehicles on the roads.

Ramdhanie said consideration should have been given to opening the bus route. However, he said a meeting will be held to discuss Tuesday’s situation and to find ways and means of improving traffic management in similar circumstances in the future.

Yesterday head of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management, Capt Neville Wint, said the ODPM was notified of flooding in the Port of Spain, San Juan/Laventille and Tunapuna Corporations and responded to fallen trees as well as other reports associated with bad weather.

He said the ODPM also contacted the Office of the Deputy Commissioner of Operations, which falls under Asst Commissioner of Police Deodath Dulalchan, to ascertain what measures it was taking to manage the traffic congestion.

“We were assured that steps were being taken to address the issue,” he said.

He reminded, the ODPM was not responsible for traffic management.

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"Police: Don’t blame us for horrendous traffic"

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