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18 Wheeler Keels On Hummingbird
posted (July 7, 2010)
Since 6:30 yesterday evening traffic has been either wholly or partially blocked at mile thirty on the Hummingbird Highway. That's because an eighteen wheeler carrying hundreds of crates of soft drinks, beers and juice overturned on the highway's sweeping hills.

The Ministry of Works managed to push it over to the side to free up one lane of traffic - but when we got there today it was still quite a mess. Monica Bodden was there.

Monica Bodden, Reporting
Today when we arrived on the scene, this eighteen wheeler truck - belonging to Arnold Williams Jr. of Punta Gorda Town - was lying on one side of the road at mile thirty on the Hummingbird Highway.

The truck, carrying a cargo of beverages for Johnson's Distributors was making its way up this hill when the brakes failed causing the truck to roll back down the hill.

The driver, along with his two other sidemen managed to jump out the moving truck. No one was injured but the truck which ended up across the highway - blocked the flow of traffic. The incident happened a little after six o'clock yesterday evening and according to the Ministry of Works they have been on the ground since last night trying to get the flow of traffic back to normal.

Lennox Bradley - Chief Engineer, Ministry of Works
"We got reports around 8:30 last night that we had an incident out here with a tow-head transporting goods down south but it had blocked access and we had to mobilize to try restoring access to the general public. The 18 wheeler fully blocked the roadway it was right across the road. So what we had to do was to allow small vehicles to pass was to create a small diversion and if you notice the location, we didn't have much room to make diversion wide enough to make other heavy vehicles pass. The diversion was only for small vehicles and that was opened at two o' clock this morning."

Since the acciden, other articulated trucks travelling either to Stann Creek or Toledo were asked to use the Manatee or Coastal Road up until 2 o'clock this afternoon.

Lennox Bradley
"Two o' clock this afternoon we restored one lane access to the motoring public."

The eighteen wheeler truck which was packed to capacity with soft drinks, juices and other beverages was heading to Punta Gorda Town.

Lennox Bradley
"The truck was on its way to Punta Gorda Town transporting juices, coke and beverages for Johnson Distributors down in Punta Gorda."

According to the Ministry of Works - the section by mile 30 should have been opened for two way traffic by 5:00 this evening.

At newstime - the truck still hadn't been moved - but one lane of traffic remains opened.

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