KEVON FELMINE

While many taxi dri­vers com­plain that poor road con­di­tions dam­age their ve­hi­cles, T&T Taxi Dri­ver’s Net­work vice-pres­i­dent Chan­dra­dath “Torch­light” Ram­per­sad is seek­ing com­pen­sa­tion af­ter re­port­ed­ly in­jur­ing his foot in a pot­hole.

With his right foot se­vere­ly swollen and un­able to fit in his shoes, Ram­per­sad said he has not worked since Feb­ru­ary 10, when he twist­ed his an­kle a few me­tres from his home along St Croix Road, Princes Town.

His sto­ry comes a day af­ter An­to­nia Si­mone Adams said she would be ex­plor­ing her le­gal op­tions af­ter her foot slipped in­to a pot­hole along El So­cor­ro Road last week.

Ram­per­sad said yes­ter­day that rel­a­tives have been bring­ing him food as he had no in­come for the past week, and the swelling does not seem to be go­ing away.

Ram­per­sad said he left home to con­duct busi­ness and was walk­ing along the road around 6.30 pm. With no pave­ments, he shift­ed to the side to al­low a car to pass. How­ev­er, he claimed his foot slipped at the edge of the pot­hole, caus­ing him to fall in. While the pot­hole was not deep, he could not get up, and a pass­er-by had to as­sist him home. 

“I got an x-ray, I went to doc­tors and all kinds of thing. They said the foot, none of the bones broke, but I get pain in the foot when I am walk­ing. I do not know if it sprained or what. I have to re­turn to the hos­pi­tal and see what is hap­pen­ing,” Ram­per­sad said.

Doc­tors pre­scribed tablets, but Ram­per­sad said his foot did not im­prove. He said he does not have di­a­betes, kid­ney dis­ease or any oth­er ail­ment that could cause his foot to stay swollen.

St Croix Road con­nects Bar­rack­pore to Princes Town, but pot­holes and land­slips plague a sig­nif­i­cant part. Ram­per­sad said it was why res­i­dents joined the protest in Rees Road, Bar­rack­pore, last year, seek­ing re­pairs.

Ram­per­sad said there must be ac­tion fol­low­ing his in­jury and has not ruled out fil­ing le­gal pro­ceed­ings against the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port or who­ev­er is re­spon­si­ble for the road­way.

He wants Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley and Min­is­ter of Works and Trans­port Ro­han Sinanan to meet res­i­dents about road con­di­tions.

“I tried to call him (Sinanan) and talk to him, but he had Par­lia­ment Fri­day. So I am hop­ing with this in­ter­view, he will see what is go­ing on and talk to me be­cause I need some­thing. Look at the state of my foot.”

Guardian Me­dia called Min­is­ter Sinanan, but there was no an­swer.

In Sep­tem­ber 2022, res­i­dents res­cued a 13-year-old Bar­rack­pore East Sec­ondary School stu­dent who fell in­to a hole while walk­ing along the flood­ed Pa­pourie Road.

In 2018, High Court Judge Frank Seep­er­sad ruled that the MOWT was neg­li­gent in an in­ci­dent where a preschool teacher fell in­to an open man-hole in Fe­lic­i­ty in 2015.