RESIDENTS of Lodge in St Ann say they are fearful that if an eroded section of the main road in the community is not repaired immediately someone could sustain serious injury or die on that bit of roadway.

Their concerns come in the wake of several near mishaps in the community, which has seen a number of motorists limping away from vehicles. Residents told the Observer that recently a motor vehicle travelling along the eroded section of the roadway fell into the gully several feet below.

“It’s a miracle that the people didn’t have any serious injuries, considering the gully is very deep,” said Ian, a resident of the community. In fact, the residents say they have had to rescue vehicles perched precariously at the edge of the embankment, whose unsuspecting drivers fall prey to the broken roadway.

The residents told the Observer that they became even more alarmed after a child fell through the opening.

Operator of the Lodge Supermarket and Wholesale, Vaughn Miller, whose business is situated close to the eroded section of the main road, said he had sent numerous letters of complaint to the St Ann Parish Council. However, he said nothing had been done to date.

“I call them at Parish Council almost every month and they have done nothing about it,” Miller told the Observer.

“Recently a small child was walking along the roadway from school and two vehicles were coming from the opposite direction and she stepped back out of the way and fell right through,” he said.

Miller told the Observer that the embankment started breaking away in 1999, forcing him to erect a fence along its perimeter.

Miller also recalled that about three years ago residents reminded the Parish Council about the erosion, after workmen began repaving the roadway. He said the parish council promised to build a retaining wall to prevent the road from eroding further.

“They came and measured it up and since then we have heard nothing about it, even though I continue to send them letters,” Miller said.

“When I sent the last letter,” he continued, “I heard that the persons down there say they know exactly where this is coming from because they are used to me calling and writing by now.”

The businessman also told the Observer that heavy rains last December further eroded the roadway, rendering useless the fence that he had built along the perimeter of the embankment.

Superintendent of works at the St Ann Parish Council, Arthur Hosang, told the Observer last Thursday that any repairs to that roadway would be the responsibility of the council. He, however, argued that while he had not seen the eroded roadway in over a year, he was not convinced that it posed a danger to anyone.

“There is no potential danger to people using the road,” Hosang said, adding that for the child to have fallen through she must have been walking on the edge of Miller’s property, and not on the roadway itself.

But the eroded roadway clearly poses a grave danger to pedestrians and motorists alike. In fact, there are no sidewalks, forcing pedestrians to stand still in order to allow vehicles to pass. “Just one bad step, and you going to fall right through there,” Miller told the Observer during a tour of the area.

But Hosang on Thursday chided motorists over what he described as their “indisciplined” use of the roadway, which he said was extremely narrow, but could not be extended.

Hosang eventually said he planned to visit the area to see how badly the road had deteriorated, noting that a retaining wall would have to be built.

But this is cold comfort to the residents of Lodge, who complained that the parish council had neglected their community for “far too long.”