Tobago ACP on wrecking:Who can't hear will feel

HEAD of the police Tobago Division ACP Collis Hazel says wrecking, under his watch, will be a dominant feature of the island’s policing landscape.

He made the statement last Thursday during a stakeholders' meeting at the Scarborough Library.

Hazel was a member of a panel which included officials from the Licensing Division, TT Fire Services, Prisons Services and Defence Force.

The non-security stakeholders comprised representatives from the Tobago Chamber of Industry & Commerce, Tobago Business Chamber, Tobago CivilNET and Taxi Drivers’ Association.

Hazel said indiscriminate parking, particularly in the capital, had become the order of the day.

“We have to put things in force in order to police people. So we know licensing (division) coming, everybody hiding instead of make some opportunity to fix it,” he said. “It is the same thing we do in our city that we call our town. Everybody just stopping in any corner, drop here, park up there.”

He said the situation becomes even worse when the ferries dock.

“We want to park up all over the place and inconvenience people in this small city, and as the vessel comes in, it is chaos. Where my office is, I can see the entire view of town, and it is ugly, and I have made it my mantra that that must be corrected.

"So if people can’t hear they will feel.”

Hazel argued Tobago, especially Scarborough, does not have the road space to accommodate “inconveniences of traffic.” He said people must simply park in the designated zones and walk to their destinations.

“People need to park and walk. The exercise is good for us. Let us lose some of the weight. Not everybody dropping here, there and everywhere.”

Hazel told the gathering the scene becomes especially ugly when there is an emergency.

“The fire tender is trying to get to somebody to help them, or the ambulance or the police trying to respond, and you making siren round and round and round and it’s just jam-packed.”

He said only when a family member is affected do people feel the effect.

“We talk about it when it impacts us, but we eh care about nobody else, and therefore, if it means that enforcement is to do it, the wrecker will be in town, and I don’t intend for it to leave.”

Hazel urged drivers to be obedient “because all of us have to live here comfortably.”

He said the wrecker will also be used to remove derelict vehicles.

“They slow us down, many times because you can’t respond as you would want to or you would like to because of the narrow carriageway that you have to operate in. You always have to pull up, because people have them parked all on the roadways.

"So it is our intention to ensure that the wrecker will do some work in communities.”

Hazel said during road paving by the Division of Infrastructure or private contractors on the island, paving is often done around the wreckage.

“What madness is that? That is a banana republic you are talking about. We will not sit and tolerate that again here.”