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Monday, July 7, 2025

Dozens left stranded in the curfew

by

1479 days ago
20210619

RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Dozens of peo­ple were left strand­ed at taxi stands in San Fer­nan­do last night as the week­end cur­few kicked in.

But in­stead of be­ing charged, the work­ers were giv­en as­sis­tance by the po­lice to get to their des­ti­na­tions safe­ly.

Alekquay Layne, of Point Fortin, said it was the pre-cur­few po­lice road­blocks that re­sult­ed in him get­ting stuck at the Port of Spain taxi stand on High Street.

“I live in Point Fortin and I work as an MTS se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cer at the Hase­ly Craw­ford sta­di­um. I left home very ear­ly but I was caught in three road­blocks. Even­tu­al­ly, when it got late, the maxi dri­ver de­cid­ed not to con­tin­ue the trip and we switched max­is with an­oth­er dri­ver who lives in San Fer­nan­do and was head­ing home. I got to the stand at 5:45 pm but I could not get a taxi,” Layne said.

He ex­plained that even though he knew he could be fined for breach­ing the cur­few he was hap­py that the po­lice were help­ful and of­fered to drop him at his work­place.

Alecquay Layne and Jay being assisted by PC Rambarran and WPC Allum at the San Fernando Police Station.

Alecquay Layne and Jay being assisted by PC Rambarran and WPC Allum at the San Fernando Police Station.

Kristian De Silva

Layne said more than a dozen peo­ple were left at the taxi stand and the po­lice were cor­dial and help­ful to all of them.

An­oth­er strand­ed pas­sen­ger who gave her name as Jay said she was al­so grate­ful to the po­lice for help­ing her to get home.

Mean­while, there were al­so strand­ed pas­sen­gers at the Fyz­abad, Mara­bel­la and Pe­nal taxi stands.

Po­lice of­fi­cers said com­muters must try to make prop­er arrange­ments to en­sure that they get some well be­fore the cur­few pe­ri­od.

Su­per­mar­ket rush

Mean­while, hours be­fore the lock­down be­gan, peo­ple flood­ed in­to gas sta­tions, su­per­mar­kets and pro­duce stalls to stock up on ra­tions for the week­end ahead.

At the NP ser­vice sta­tion in Co­coyea, mo­torists lined the Na­pari­ma / Ma­yaro Road as they wait­ed for gas.

“I want­ed to fu­el up just in case we have any emer­gen­cies this week,” Son­ny Dhan­sook said.

At Chase Vil­lage, in Freeport, meat sup­pli­ers ran a brisk trade. Parcels of fresh chick­en were lined on the coun­ter­tops, while cus­tomers came to make and pick up or­ders.

The Po­lice Ser­vice has clar­i­fied that su­per­mar­kets, mi­ni-marts and phar­ma­cies will be al­lowed to open from 5.01 am to 10.01 pm to­day and to­mor­row.

Shoppers wait in line to enter West Bees supermarket, Diego Martin, to do their groceries shopping yesterday.

Shoppers wait in line to enter West Bees supermarket, Diego Martin, to do their groceries shopping yesterday.

Nicole Drayton

The po­lice had is­sued a state­ment ear­li­er in the day stat­ing that those es­tab­lish­ments were not al­lowed to open.

How­ev­er, late yes­ter­day evening the Po­lice Ser­vice is­sued an­oth­er state­ment clar­i­fy­ing that they would be al­lowed to open.

“The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) wish­es to clar­i­fy to mem­bers of the pub­lic that su­per­mar­kets, mi­ni-marts, phar­ma­cies, re­li­gious or­gan­i­sa­tions (for the pur­pos­es of wed­dings and fu­ner­als), fu­ner­al homes, es­sen­tial work­ers and oth­er es­sen­tial ser­vices, as per the Reg­u­la­tions, are al­lowed to op­er­ate dur­ing the pe­ri­od 5:01 am and 10:01 am on Sat­ur­day 19th June, 2021 and 5:01 am and 10: 01 am on Sun­day 20th June, 2021. All oth­er ac­tiv­i­ties are not al­lowed.

The TTPS is com­mit­ted to en­sur­ing that per­sons stay off the road un­less it is nec­es­sary dur­ing this time, in or­der to min­imise move­ment in keep­ing with the ra­tio­nale for the State of Emer­gency, which is to re­duce the im­pact of the Covid-19 virus on the pop­u­la­tion.”

CNG gas customers line up at the NP gas station, Mon Repos, San Fernando, hoping to top up their tanks in light of the weekend curfew.

CNG gas customers line up at the NP gas station, Mon Repos, San Fernando, hoping to top up their tanks in light of the weekend curfew.

Kristian De Silva


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