WESTERN BUREAU:
SCORES OF truck drivers staged a demonstration throughout Fern Gully, St. Ann yesterday bringing traffic to a standstill and forcing the cancellation of some tours to the popular tourist attraction.
From as early as 7:00 a.m, the drivers, many bearing placards and in violation of a long-standing government order which prohibits them from driving through Fern Gully, lined their vehicles in single file, in some cases on both sides of the road, making it difficult for other motorists to go through the area. Several tour buses transporting cruise ship passengers had to turn back.
The drivers complained they were being discriminated against, charging they were being forced to drive through Chalky Hill, the designated route for trucks coming from or going to Ocho Rios and other coastal towns, where their lives were in danger.
"We are afraid to go through Chalky Hill," explained Trevor Rowe, truck driver.
"In the past couple of months people have been killed, held up, kidnapped and robbed in the area by gunmen. It is a terrible situation and something we are no longer willing to put up with."
Mr. Rowe said drivers, for their own safety, have been taking an alternative route through Breadnut Hill, which partially goes through Fern Gully, but since last Tuesday they had been told by the authorities to desist from doing so.
The St. Ann Parish Council has since erected a sign warning it was a violation of the law for trucks to use that route.
"What do they want us to do?" he lamented. "If we can't go through Fern Gully then it must be Breadnut Hill. We cannot be denied entry through both."
Member of Parliament for North East St. Ann, Shahine Robinson, said that while she was firmly for preserving the tourist attraction, an alternative route has to be found for the drivers. She said the Breadnut Hill road should be widened to accommodate the trucks as, according to her, the Chalky Hill road was just too dangerous.
"Asking a truck driver to go through Chalky Hill late at night with a vehicle full of goods is the equivalent to asking them to commit suicide," she said.
