MOUNT DAKIN, St Andrew – Coffee farmers in this mountainous community yesterday blamed the deplorable condition of the roads for a motor vehicle accident that killed their colleague, Winston Anderson, also known as Burke.

Anderson, 63, of Lime Edge District in West Rural St Andrew, died yesterday from injuries received when his Toyota Tacoma pick-up plunged over a precipice in the farming community. Anderson’s pick-up skidded off the road as he attempted to navigate the rugged, hilly terrain, which is littered with muddy tracks and craters.

The farmer’s wife, Beatrice, who was in the vehicle with him, was admitted to the University Hospital of the West Indies with multiple injuries.

A trail of blood smearing the ground and surrounding trees bore evidence of Anderson’s trek as he dragged himself from the wreckage, climbed the 90-foot hill and sought help to free his wife who remained trapped in the vehicle.

Chesley Napier, a fellow coffee farmer, said he had spoken with Anderson just minutes before, and was the first on the scene.

“.Likkle after Burke gone, mi hear some bawling, more than one voice so mi know suppen (something) never right,” Napier told the Observer. He said he sought the assistance of other coffee farmers who rushed the Andersons to hospital, where the injured farmer died later.

Yesterday, residents and farmers, who said they have been seeking help to have the roads repaired, said if the roads were in a better condition Anderson would still be alive.

“This road is the cause of Burke death down here; around 15 mile a road and none a it no tan (stay) proper,” said Napier.

Stafford Brooks, also a coffee farmer, agreed. “We no have no farming road in the whole community, the bad road is the cause of this accident,” said Brooks.

Brooks, who currently cultivates 60 acres of coffee, said that for an area of such economic importance, the condition of the road was appalling. He said that he has so far spent more than $300,000 in order to better access some areas of his coffee farm.

Napier, Brooks and other coffee farmers said more than 700 acres of land were planted with coffee, but that farmers and their workers were forced to carry crops, fertilisers and other material on their heads in areas that were not accessible to motor vehicles. They said, too, that prime coffee farms were not properly maintained because of the poor roads, which they claimed have not been repaired in more than 20 years.