7 News Belize

Zebra Crossing For Crooked Tree
posted (March 6, 2019)
Viewers may remember the tragic story of 20 year-old Alma Flores, a resident of Crooked Tree Village. In August of 2017, she was killed in a traffic accident at the junction between the Phillip Goldson Highway and the Crooked Tree Road, which is located at mile 31.

The residents of the village don't want to see any more pedestrians get knocked down while crossing the highway. So, more than a year and a half later, they've finally convinced the Government to put a crosswalk to allow pedestrians to safely walk safely from one side of the road to the other.

It's one of those zebra crossings. The villagers were hoping for a pedestrian ramp, but still, they're say they will be satisfied with that for now.

Today, they invited us out to the crossing.

The villagers told us that they're hoping that motorists will drive more carefully through the area:

Steve Anthony - Crooked Tree Resident
"Over the past few years, about 7 people died from traffic accidents, from people being hit out here, while trying to cross this highway. And the last person who died was a young lady named Alma Flowers. And when that happened, we spoke to our area rep, and we voiced our concerns. The Crooked Tree PTA and the villagers came out and we voiced our concerns, and they promised that they would work with us to put a cross walk or a speed bump or something. We came back, and we spoke with the village, and we had a consensus that the speed bump might not be the greatest idea right now because that might bring more problems than we could deal with. So, we decided we were going to work with the zebra crossings. The gentlemen from Ministry of Works are here - respect to them for coming out - we're gonna be putting down the zebra lines right now. And also, we believe that a little bit later on, we will be putting up bumps a bit further down in either direction. But for right now, we have the proper signage, the proper people out here, and we're gonna get the proper work done."

Donna Perriot - Crooked Tree Resident
"I think if the motorists would get acquainted with this being here, because it would take a while for them to get acquainted with something like this that is being recently being installed here."

"It will help the drivers, and it will help the pedestrian crossing."

Steve Anthony - Crooked Tree Resident
"With all the infrastructure work going across the country - and there's some great jobs going on - and we're thinking a lot about automotive traffic, but there's a lot of people, a lot of pedestrian traffic also. So, we have to cognizant of that. Drivers when they drive, they have to realize that when they're passing villages, they've got to slow down and be prepared to stop."

Reporter
"We have heard complaints from motorists basically calling Belize the speed bump country. Everywhere you go, you meet one more speed bump you have to slow down for."

Steve Anthony
"I understand the concerns of motorists who say that everywhere you go there are speed bumps. But that's because of the way the country is set up. There are highways. There should not be speed bumps on highways. But what's the option? We don't have a service road along the Phillip Goldson. We don't have a service road along the George Price. So, if you're gonna access the villages that area along the highways you're gonna have to have speed bumps."

"You need to have ways for pedestrians to cross. That's all we're trying to do. We're trying to strike the balance between pedestrians and automotive traffic."

This evening the painting for the zebra cross way was completed. The signs alerting motorists of it will go up tomorrow.

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