BELMONT, Westmoreland — A banana tree residents planted in a pothole on the main road of this community was enough to get the authorities to fix the gaping hole as work began yesterday and is expected to be completed by next week.

“My concern is that so far two vehicles turned over there, within a month. I witnessed the turnover,” president of the Bluefields Community Development Committee, Wolde Kristos, told the Jamaica Observer on Wednesday before work began. “Lives were threatened by this hole.”

Michael Baker, a taxi operator who had been forced to manoeuvre around the pothole daily, said he was afraid there would be more accidents. “It terrible man! People a guh swing and it a guh cause collision,” he said, saying the hole had become a lot bigger recently.

Another cabbie, Roian Brae, meanwhile, was afraid lives would have been lost.

“Mi nuh wah nuh pothole inna the road because somebody a guh dead,” he shouted as he cajoled passengers into his taxi.

Though he believes residents were exaggerating, Member of Parliament Daniel Lawrence moved to get the problem addressed. “I don’t know anything at all in terms of cars turning over out there,” he said on Wednesday. He added that work would begin the next day, and checks showed that it did. The MP explained that road projects take time as State agencies are involved.

“Finally, the community’s cries are being answered,” said resident Keith Wedderburn yesterday after work began to fix the pothole. A day earlier, he had told the Observer that he had secured commitments for the funds needed so residents could fix the pothole themselves if the authorities failed to act.