Out-of-control roller crashes into yard

Dec 19, 2009 News

Ivan Franklin surveys the damage

An out-of-control road roller, belonging to the Linden Municipality, careened off the D’Anjou main road, and demolished a fence in its path before ending up in the yard of Ivan Franklin, a couple of feet from the man’s house.
A bus in the Franklins yard was also slightly damaged.
Shayana Franklin, the daughter of Ivan Franklin, said that she was sitting next to their shop in front of the yard, with her cousin Kerwin Brian, when she looked up the hill and saw the roller coming down careening from one side of the road to the next.
‘’When I see how de roller de going on I run straight to the backyard, and Kerwin run across the road’’, Shayana Franklin said.
Minutes later, the roller slammed into the family’s fence. Ivan Franklin’s wife, Mignon, remained on the upper floor of the two-storey house even after the roller had ground to a halt.
She profusely thanked God, as she exclaimed, ‘’it could have been worse!’’
The driver of the roller, Vibert Jones, said that it was after he had navigated a ‘bump’ on the road, while coming down the hill, that the brakes failed. ‘’I tried me best to hold the brakes as I was coming down the hill, but it didn’t work; so all I do was try to avoid hitting the electric poles, and that is how I end up in the yard.
Jones said that it would have been much worse if he had slammed into the utility poles, or worse yet into other vehicles traversing the roadway.
Residents who converged on the scene after hearing the loud impact, also expressed relief that no one was injured.
A municipal garbage truck was later dispatched to the scene, and hauled away the roller.