WESTMORELAND, Jamaica— The driver of a Subaru motor car was rushed to hospital after a tree cut down by angry protesters fell on his vehicle in Retreat, Little London, Westmoreland on Monday morning.

Observer Online understands that the residents were attempting to mount a roadblock over a lack of water in their community about 5:00 am and used a power saw to cut down the tree.

Member of Parliament for Westmoreland Western, Morland Wilson said that the motorist is in critical condition.

“I woke this morning to news that the Retreat main road was blocked by residents. Subsequent news is that while the residents were cutting down trees, one of the trees fell in a passing motorist’s car,” Wilson explained.

He further noted that the road has been reduced to a single lane traffic and that the police are maintaining calm in the area.

“I am going to use this opportunity to ask residents to desist from blocking the roads, to desist from cutting down trees [as] we’re living in an environment now where climate change has resulted in lower rainfall. We have all seen the impact of that rainfall resulting in a drought and a water shortage in western parishes,” he pleaded.

-Kimberley Peddie