Video: PLP Call For Action On Road Junction
[Updated] Area MP Zane Desilva has spoken out about safety concerns in the Camp Hill Road and Middle Road area in Southampton, calling on Government to “do all they can to rectify this dangerous area as quickly as possible.”
Mr. Desilva said, “Three years ago there was a tragic road accident here that claimed the life of Shayne Adderley. In the last two weeks there have been two accidents which could have had the same tragic ending.
“We are here today to request that the OBA Government do all they can to rectify this dangerous area as quickly as possible before another life is lost.
“We suggest that the hedges behind us, which are the responsibility of Mr. Jeff Sousa, of Sousa Landscaping, are removed immediately and replaced with a rock garden and therefore remain attractive – but will give much better vision when exiting this lot.
Mr. Desilva continued, “We have discussed the signage with the owner of this small business and he has agreed to move it. We also suggest when the hedge is removed, for Mr. Jeff Sousa to remove his sign…as you can see it is totally covered by overgrown trees and serves no purpose but to block the view.
“We also suggest that this area become a ‘no exit area’, similar to that which was done at Ice Queen several years ago.
“We also request the Government to approach the land owner of the property across the street to purchase or donate a portion of their land, so that a sidewalk can be constructed and therefore also improving the sight lines dramatically when exiting Camp Hill Road.
“We ask that the OBA Public Works Minister Pamplin Gordon instruct her engineers to come up with a scheme to assist with this very concerning issue as soon as possible.
“Now you might ask “Have I or we approached Government on this issue”? No we haven’t. Why? Because Minister Gordon has a track record of moving far too slow and not listening.”
Mr. Desilva continued, “For example: The barriers on Tribe Road # 6 where there was the tragic death of a young child – which took several months to fix after much public outcry. Lamb Foggo Urgent Care Center. Pre-Certification
“I have requested additional rumble strips on East Broadway over this past year and they still haven’t been installed after the Minister promised they would be. Therefore, we felt the most effective way to have this problem looked at as a matter of urgency was to hold this press conference.
“In closing we again ask that this area receive immediate attention, not only for the residents in Southampton but for the entire island.”
In response, the Minister of Public Works Patricia Gordon Pamplin said, “Had the former Minister requested information from the Ministry, he would have been informed that area he has highlighted already has advanced improvement plans in place.
“He would also be aware that MP Jeff Sousa has already raised the Camp Hill/Heron Bay issue to the attention of the Minister and key technical staff at the Ministry. We view this as a matter of urgency and I am pleased to note that the Ministry’s Chief Engineer and his team are working toward a resolution regarding this matter.”
“Since coming to office, this Government has been working steadily to address infrastructure issues such as railings that have been left unattended countrywide yet we are now forced to examine safety issues that heretofore were neglected. We are doing the best to ensure the safety of all residents and will continue to do so for the better good of the community.”
Jeff Sousa — who is an OBA MP and the owner of Sousa’s Landscaping — said, “MP Zane Desilva emailed me a week ago last Sunday about his concern. As I was working in my office at the time I immediately walked down to the area to see what he was talking about.
Mr. Sousa said that in his humble opinion the plants that were planted on the Heron Bay Market Place property by Sousa’s Gardens do not block someones sight as they look west coming out from the businesses in that area, as they are planted up off the road behind the sidewalk. “This work was done for free to beautify the area,” added the MP.
“I assured MP Desilva at the time that he emailed me that if they were blocking the view I would have it dealt with right away as health and safety has been, and always will be, the highest priority at both Sousa’s Landscape Management Co Ltd and Sousa’s Gardens.
“I do agree with MP Desilva that attention needs to be given to this intersection as it is much busier today than it was in years gone by and there are far more businesses in the area.
“I am very familiar with the area as I have frequented it my entire life. At one time my Uncle Benny Sousa owned that entire area so know it well. This is something that I have said in letters to my constituents that I would like to see addressed, so certainly will follow up with the Minister responsible.
“In my email to MP Desilva I did offer to meet with him there at anytime he wished but it looks as though he didn’t wish to go that route.
“What we need to do is tell our people to slow down as speed in this area is one of the main reasons accidents have occurred in this particular area. I have personally seen accidents take place, but in each case it was someone far exceeding the speed limit. As many would say they were ‘flying past with no concern for others what so ever.’ Please Bermuda slow down,” concluded Mr. Sousa.
Update 7.46am: In response, Mr. Desilva said, “With the OBA’s record of broken promises, lack of transparency and deception, one can easily be excused for remaining skeptical of OBA words until backed up by real and tangible action.
“Where are the advanced improvement plans? When did she view this junction improvement ‘a matter of urgency?’ When did she start working on these plans? We note that despite this being described as a matter of urgency by the part time Minister, no time frame has been provided, nor any details in terms of what actually will be done to alleviate this situation.
“The people of constituency 29 expect progress not promises. as by now they are deeply aware that OBA promises aren’t worth the paper they are printed on.
“And as for Jeff Sousa’s irresponsible remarks saying in his humble opinion the plants don’t block the view is…absurd and uncaring and a slap in the face to the residents who are calling for improvements!”
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It’s a busy junction for sure, but dangerous? Hardly. Yes there have been accidents and even a death close by, but Zane is pulling at straws. If this is the best he can do – then he needs to regroup. he’s embarrassing himself and his party.
You must live in Fairytalelands….you’re embarrassing the Jame’s last name please stop.
I’d like to call for action too….on all the issues surrounding the Hospital while you were “Health Minister”.
Oh no, he fails to (nor wants to) speak about that…Mr.Zane DeSiva is an egotistical individual seeking attention. Why hadn’t he(Zane) talked to Mr. Jeff Sousa personally if not for attention to himself?
I’ve come out from that junction before. The trees do block your vision when looking West to exit into the main road… If you also look at the video, it takes 3 seconds for a vehicle to approach that junction after seeing it coming around the hedges. Yes, even the sign is somewhat of a distraction…
Mr. DeSilva is highlighting one of the failings of the PLP when they were the administration. The tried to micromanage. It is not the job of a Minister to manage day to day matters. That is the job of the Civil Servants, of which there are a surplus, who are paid to do that job. However by trying to control and run each Ministry the Ministers, many of whom were totally out of their depth, created a culture that to the Civil Service meant we don’t have to do anything until the Minister tells us. That culture is very hard to change, and no wonder the BPSU and BIU don’t want that culture to change.
Zane, Its amazing you have all these ideas now as the opposition.Maybe if you wouldve put some of these ideas into place when in govt,you couldve still been there. If you read some of my past blogs i dont support party politics,Bermuda is to small for that.I support right and wrong,and intelligent and dumb.Latel you havent been sounding to intelligent….
Lately!
Is that your security team??
@islandguy—-no need for personal attacks, I know those people and one is from the neighborhood, one is also relative of young man who was killed! these are peoples relatives, and friends!!!!something wrong with your eyesight! That junction could use an improvement,especially since lately it has become busier due to extra business in that area being opened..
This junction has been like this for years and now all of a sudden it’s an emergency to get it altered? If that is the case then there are dozens of junctions and entrances that need alteration because of the amount of accidents that happen there.
This is the nature of Bermuda’s roads; narrow, winding, limited sight lines and couple that with speeders and inconsiderate drivers and we have the recipe for crashes to happen. The amount of hedges that need trimming at the side of the road is more of a hazard than what Zane is whining about.
We have to accept that the island is in a serious financial state and that people don’t seem to care much anymore. Zane needs to empower people to get out there and trim their hedges instead of using his energy and voice to gripe about the OBA for any and everything trivial.
The one thing the PLP were sure good at was making the people dependent on the Govt to do everything for them.
All which should of been taken care of by you ZANE and your PLP Gov. Even after a lost life your lot did nothing, but you didn`t mention that did you on one of your papers you passed on to whoever! Did you practice that or what. Zane you are a windbag of the highest order and deserve a trophy for blowing smoke. I could find 20 more spots on our roads that are worse than that. You have lost your way, been lost your way.
Speed limit and bigger cars are the issue. The Bigger cars falls at the feet of the previous plp gov. Speed falls at the feet of the police. Time for speed cameras. I think Ewart proposed them years ago, to great noise. Perhaps now is the time for speed cameras. Just add them to the new camera network, its an easy fix, as long as you stiffen the penalties for obstructing your license plates, like $1500. just to keep the high speed bikes from doing what they do on a regular basis. Might slow down a few of those buses heading to dockyard at 70mph as well.
There’s that old adage:”Ride like lightening you’re liable to crash like thunder”. Also, “An oz of prevention is worth a pound of cure”
Zane for leader of the PLP. OBA has Mike, PLP may as well have Zane. Everyone loves your hopital B-T-W. I have never heard of so many people wanting to get sick.
Yup…just love that new hospital….black / brown widow spiders and all!!
Zane is trying his level best to raise his profile in order to run for the leadership/deputy leadership of his party. Unfortunately, he has no chance of winning.
Why didn’t the PLP address the issue 3 years ago when the individual died at thesame junction?
Didn’t Zane and Co. care when they were in power?
The guy is looking for votes. An election must be coming soon because the camp hill horseshoe road area has had greater concerns for years and this juncture has not been one. The only thing wrong with the juncture is the hedges that are not trimmed down regularly. Just remove them and get to the bigger concerns Mr. Desilva….
maybe if people just drove the speed limit and exercised a bit of caution this could be solved. If you see the nose of a car sticking out, stop and let them out, seriously how hard is that?
But no, now we have to get someone to dig up the hedge, make a garden and hold up traffic for weeks instead.
Brilliant.
There are many worse places that should be focused on – the entrance to Fairylands coming off Serpentine road (why doesn’t the house on the corner have to cut down his trees?), the junction across from Ascots (no trees being cut down here either), the exit/entrance to the public portion of Elbow Beach…. and many many other driveways all over the island.
A cordial letter addressed to the Minister cc’d permanent secretary would have been enough to have this matter addressed….but nooooooo, somebody needs to raise his profile so, str8 to the media that you hated a few years ago….blasted politicians transparent? hell yeah
Zane, Zane.. go away.. come back another day.. bwaaHAAAA
All Desilva does is complain,no solutions.The PLP had 14 yrs to address all the issues he complains about and did nothing.Starting to sound like a 4 yr old who cannot get his way.
the plp failed to fix this when they were in power,the blame lays solely on the plp.Zane should get his facts right.
Zane is performing exactly how a Minister of the Opposition should, drawing the Government’s attention to the smaller issues that may get lost when working on the BIG picture but are as important to the residents of the area and should therefore be addressed. Thank you Zane for relieving the Government of the strain of trying to juggle both
Just one word of advice though, instead of calling the Minister names which really isn’t very nice as she really is focused on the BIG picture, bring your issues to the Permanent Secretary and all those civil servants that you hired during your reign and give them something to do instead.
You guys seem to forget that tree’s grow. They wasn’t so high 3 years ago.
The issue here is speed. Cars and bikes need to slow down coming around the corner going West. I come out of there everyday and it’s the flying vehicles that are the problem.
Poor sightlines at intersections & gates are common all arouind the Island. Nothing new at all. Stop lines at intersections mean nothing as nothing can be seen if one stops at the line as required by law.
We drive to fast. We drive distracted. We drive like we are the only people on the road. We drive vehicles much larger & faster than we need for such a small island/community.
If we drove vehicles of a size & speed capability more suitable to our road conditions maybe, just maybe, we would have far fewer crashes without major changes to our roads.
Imagine if we had vehicles not capable of anything much over 30mph. Imagine if they were no bigger than a current class A or B car. Sure, there are familys which need are larger vehicle to haul kids but most of us drive around single or maybe double occupant with empty back seats.
all the road sides need cutting back the road are a mess…they have allowed this growth over the last several years its bad. We need a truck with machinery and a few Portugese men to trim this island back into shape and beauty.
The same problem exists at the junction of Church Road and South Shore road Southampton.
This area has been an issue for many, many years! It’s only getting worse because of people speeding. I too live in the area and I personally don’t think the plants planted by Mr. Sousa are obstructing the view anymore than what it already is. Pulling out of Camp Hill is just as bad. Bikes and cars come speeding around the corner (heading west) and it makes it very difficult to pull out of there. Are we supposed to ask the property owners to cut into their yard so we can see further away because idiots don’t know how to slow down??? And there is a crosswalk there but these drivers just don’t care!
As said before, this is Bermuda. Windy roads and limited view for so many people on the island. And Zane just wants to bring his up??? He’s always been one to make a lot of noise. He sure does love the attention. All the PLP have done since the OBA have been in power is complain about what needs to be done. They had 14yrs. They have left the new government with no funds.
As a mechanic friend of mine once said “I can take an engine apart in minutes but to put it back together with all the nuts and bolts where they belong will take a lot longer”. For those of you that may not understand….it look the PLP a very short time to turn this country upside down but for the OBA to put it back together and booming like we once were will take a while. It’s just not going to happen right away and people must be patient. They are trying hard.
Give it up Zane! Go do something productive.
Save a bundle install a large convex mirror.
All Traffic has president on Middle Road as it is a primary thoroughfare, junctions to main roads are considered secondary requiring traffic to stop and wait for primary traffic and pedestrians to clear.
The potential exist for multiple rear end collisions caused by impatient drivers gaining opportunistic access from the intersection.
Drive with due care and attention. Do Not Grandstand, Exercise clear and good judgement, you could be “Dead Right”.
“Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread “.