The police in St Ann have taken steps to prevent a recurrence of the situation which saw motorists travelling between Ocho Rios and St Ann’s Bay facing traffic delays of up to six hours on Saturday.

According to reports reaching Observer Online, several people traveling from Ocho Rios to Montego Bay, St James were either late or missed their flight.

Head of the St. Ann Police Division, Senior Superintendent (SSP) Dwight Powell, said the police have since taken charge of the situation.

“Going forward for the rest of the holiday, I have re-engaged the Assistant Commissioner of Police at PSTEB (Public Safety and Traffic Enforcement Branch), who has committed additional personnel. We got some help from them yesterday (Saturday) but we’re getting additional personnel for today and tomorrow,” SSP Powell said.

“So far for today, the traffic is not looking bad. I just drove from Ocho Rios into St Ann’s Bay and the traffic is not bad at all. It’s a steady flow along east and south.”

The senior cop said for Easter Monday, the police are expecting a heavy flow of traffic because of the events planned for the holidays.

There is expected to be a meet at Dover Raceway, Ocho Rios Carnival to be held at Turtle River Park and an event scheduled for the Ocho Rios Pier Beach in the night.

“We are putting some plans in place and we are hoping that we do not get back to where we were yesterday,” SSP Powell said.

He said last evening’s massive traffic pile was as a result of several factors. He explained that it was the first major holiday opening since COVID-19 measures were lifted and this resulted in a large influx of people into the parish.

“All the beaches were filled; all the major attractions were filled. We had some policing plans in place but what happened is that we had inclement weather yesterday, so the weather conditions caused a build-up of traffic, coupled with the fact that we had two major permitted events,” said Powell.

There was an event at Pearly Beach and another at a popular club. These, Powell noted, also contributed to the build-up in traffic.

“We were very good until sometime after 4:00pm when the rain started,” he said, adding that this was when motorists became indisciplined and started to create two and three lanes in places where only single lane traffic is allowed.

“I am appealing for motorist to exercise the requisite discipline on the road because that was a large factor in the traffic snarl that we had yesterday,” the SSP pleaded.

“We had police at key intersections to push the traffic off but as I said the vast volume of traffic, plus the indiscipline of the motorists and the rain that came down, caused a little bit of a spoke in our plans”.