Some residents and motorists who utilise the Windsor/Brighton four cross junction in St George are calling for drivers to be more patient. Just recently there was a serious accident there, resulting in injuries, while another occurred last Wednesday afternoon, causing a vehicle to overturn.
Recently, the construction of roundabouts at dangerous intersections was listed among the plans outlined by Minister of Transport and Works Santia Bradshaw during debate on a land acquisition resolution in the House of Assembly. The construction of a long-requested roundabout at that intersection is just one of two for the parish, with the other proposed for Groves.
Minister of Housing, Lands and Maintenance Dwight Sutherland, who is also Member of Parliament for St George South, stated that work should commence this summer.
A Nation team spoke with several motorists who preferred to remain anonymous.
One 60-year-old male driver said: “It just calls for caution. People does be driving and on their cellphone and [when] you meet at a junction or stop in traffic, you should be on alert . . . . It’s defensive driving.”
Another driver, who doesn’t live in the area but traverses the St George parish on a regular basis, noted that some motorists just need to apply basic common sense while at junctions.
“You always have stupid people . . . but I find a lot of people driving in Barbados now does give way to the other vehicle. You would find the odd man that wouldn’t give way to nobody.”
A 53-year-old female who has lived near the Windsor/Brighton junction all her life, said that for as long as she lived in that community, the junction was always accident-prone.
“For me, that junction for many years has contributed to a number of accidents . . . not only just minor accidents, but major accidents because of the four cross. People, I find, do not pay attention or are very hasty at times to just get across the street, and in doing so, a number of accidents have been created for the past couple of years.”
When asked by a Nation team if she thought anything could be done to improve the area, she noted: “I think maybe a roundabout or traffic lights may mitigate the problem of people being hasty to beat the traffic to get out from that junction because sometimes the traffic is very long and winding and people are in a haste to get to their destination without due care. Sometimes they tend to forget that other people are on the road trying to get to their destinations as well. People need to be more careful and vigilant.”
Concerning another nearby junction, known as the Carmichael Turnpike, where five roads meet, she noted that despite the congestion, there are far fewer accidents there.
“Over the years growing up as a child, there used to be accidents at that junction, but since the cut-rock has been cleared for many years, that has lessened the amount of accidents taking place there, so there are no accidents there really, that I can remember, but that junction by Windsor Road and Brighton, that is the one that has been having the most accidents over the past years.”
Another motorist who frequents the parish is familiar with both the Carmichael Turnpike and the Windsor/Brighton junction. The 48-year-old male driver said both junctions create issues for drivers.
“Well, I don’t live in the area but I traverse the area a lot and I find the Turnpike, it looks more challenging than it really is but I’ve never had any accidents but I can see why people could be confused. It just takes for people to be patient. However, I find there, the four cross, that is a much greater challenge where you have to rely on people to give way. People just need to be patient and drive with common sense and be courteous to one another . . . but I know that there has been several deaths at the junction in the past but it’s good to know that a roundabout will be coming.”
From as far back as 2005, both junctions posed serious issues for motorists when then police public relations officer, Station Sergeant Barry Hunte, told the Daily Nation the Carmichael junction had been the scene of “60-odd” accidents over a period of nine months.
In 2022, a mass casualty involving 25 people occurred at the Windsor Road/Brighton junction after a collision between a Transport Augmentation Programme bus and a car, where eight people complained of injuries and were transported to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Back then, several motorists interviewed called for a roundabout to be erected at the intersection.
