The court has rejected an omnibus driver’s claim that he obstructed traffic to allow an elderly woman to cross the street in the Byera tunnel because it was raining.
“Right in the tunnel you stopped and telling me about help old lady,” Magistrate Bertie Pompey told the defendant, Desron May, 38, of Sandy Bay.
May appeared before Pompey at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court on Nov. 13, charged that on Nov. 10, at Byera public road, being the driver of motor vehicle H3149, he did willfully allow the said vehicle to stand on such a road so as to cause unnecessary obstruction to the free flow of traffic.
Assistant Superintendent of Police Junior Nero told the court that about 9:30 a.m. on Nov. 10, Inspector Godwin Charles of the Georgetown Police Station was driving in the direction of Kingstown.
On reaching the Byera Tunnel, the inspector saw omnibus H3149 travelling in the opposite direction.
The omnibus stopped at the end of the tunnel, thereby obstructing the inspector from proceeding.
Nero said Charles exited his vehicle to approach the driver but the conductor made a rude gesture with his hand to the inspector and the omnibus drove away before Charles reached him.
May was later brought to the Georgetown Police Station where he was charged.
In mitigation, May told the court that he stopped in the tunnel as an elderly woman who did not have an umbrella was in the rain.
He said two vans had passed and there was no traffic.
“I just decide to help the lady so I stopped,” May told the court.
“So, the inspector was walking?” the magistrate interjected
“As I go off — lead off — I saw the inspector jeep coming down by the breadfruit tree…” May said and maintained that there was no traffic in front or behind of him.
Pompey fined May EC$300, ordering him to pay EC$150 forthwith or two months imprisonment.
The balance must be paid in one month to avoid a two-month jail term.
Need cameras at the tunnel.
third world country justice. lol. fined or imprisonment for allegedly stopping one’s vehicle?
What kind of justice is this? This ought to be a banana republic country. What a waste of taxpayers money. There is so much crimes in the country and this is what you brought some to court for? Like really?